#poor studio deen

[pochqmqri]

With how OtonaPre ended up being mid and had several questionable choices, I know that there are some, myself included, who are worried about how the MahoPre adult sequel will turn out. Even so, I remain cautiously optimistic, as this was always the one out of the two I was the most excited for.

Going back to the initial announcement for both OtonaPre and the MahoPre sequel, it's interesting to note that they only tentatively call it Mahou Tsukai PreCure! 2. They don't outright call it something like Otona Mahou Tsukai PreCure!, so maybe it's not really tied to the OtonaPre brand.

This would be a welcome change because one of the main problems with OtonaPre was that they tried to juggle a main cast of 8, arguably 10, or even 13, in just 12 episodes. This meant that several characters got shafted in development, notably Rin, Komachi, and Mai. In a MahoPre sequel, we'd only really need focus on Mirai, Riko, Haa-chan, and Mofurun, and maybe a few of the other side characters. Realistically I don't see what other seasons they could try and jam into MahoPre2, like not GoPriPre or KiraPre. MahoPre has such a distinctive style to it with all the witchcraft stuff.

Another thing to note from that initial announcement is that MahoPre2 will be airing on the late-night Animazing!!! block owned by TV Asahi and ABC TV, on Sundays 2:00-2:30 AM. This is quite the unusual choice because even OtonaPre, which aired on NHK-E, aired as late as Saturday 6:30PM. Similarly, Tokyo Mew Mew New aired around midnight when it broadcasted. I don't know what this really means in terms of "adult content" though, because even TMMN was mostly restrained in that regard. OtonaPre aired on a night/afternoon timeslot, but it also aired in the same block that had stuff like Spongebob, so they couldn't get too "adult," the most being stuff like alcohol consumption and climate change.

From this article back in March, Producer Takashi Washio notes that when NHK-E ("E" standing for education) was chosen to air OtonaPre on, he was asked if they could focus on topics related to SDGs, sustainable development goals. This is why OtonaPre has a large focus on climate change and sustainability, despite it feeling a bit out of place. I appreciate the focus on such topics, but I felt like it was taking up too much space in OtonaPre when combined with the topics of adulthood struggles and usual PreCure stuff, especially for just 12 episodes. I also think that the aforementioned Tokyo Mew Mew New, which aired last year and earlier this year, was much better at conveying these topics.

There's not much we know about MahoPre2, but I think I can say for certain that it won't have much of heavy environmental theme to it, and more so focus on expanding the lore of the Witch World. I expect the sequel to have 12-13 episodes like OtonaPre did, so not trying to jam several themes into such a limited scope will be good.

Another thing, that's a bit small is that, personally, I wasn't a fan of the art direction, notably the character designs, of OtonaPre. Toei outsourced the anime primarily to Studio DEEN, so most of the staff, character designer, series director, animation directors, art director, etc. were assigned to people who didn't seem to be that familiar with the series and the final product sort of reflected that. It's understandable why Toei outsourced most of the production, as this year, they also had to focus on the usual yearly PreCure, One Piece, the Sailor Moon Cosmos films, etc., and I expect more of the same next year for MahoPre2.

But I think that, at least in terms of character designer, we might get Emiko Miyamoto, who was the CD for the original MahoPre, back. The reason why Toshie Kawamura, who was the CD for Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!, didn't come back for OtonaPre, seems to be that she's currently not accepting new work due to her poor health, as stated in her Twitter bio. This makes sense, as Kawamura recently did the character designs for the all-male Dancing Star PreCure, which, as a live-action stage play, had less commitments for her to deal with compared to OtonaPre. In contrast, from what I could gather, Miyamoto appears to be in good health, and she hasn't really done much work since Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai, which ended last year. She did do some small animation work for the recent PreCure All Stars F film, but that's pretty much it. I think there will be time for her to return next year for MahoPre2, along with other staff like head writer Isao Murayama and series director Masato Mitsuka.

Ideally, I would hope that MahoPre2 has the women transform into adult Pretty Cure, unlike what OtonaPre did, but there's really nothing right now that I can predict, other than that it seemingly not being apart of the OtonaPre brand may raise some hope.

So yeah, these are the reasons why I'm holding out hope that MahoPre2 will still be good. Hopefully they don't do what they did in OtonaPre and have Mirai and Riko be paired off with random faceless men, and instead with each other. They have to make it gayer, with maintext, not subtext, like how they kissed in the manga.

[very-grownup]

We've fully switched to the new lineup for Anime Girls' Night, which is Monster, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, and Harley Quinn.

Ooku? Well, that's the anime adaptation of Fumi Yoshinaga's alternate history manga, about a plague in the early 1700s that ravaged Japan and decimated the male population, leading the ratio of men to women of 1 to 4, and women taking over matters of business, labour, and governance, and the shogun hoarding reproductive wealth by maintaining a private collection of hundreds to thousands of men for her exclusive use. The series has won major awards in Japan and North America, including the Tezuka Osamu Culture Award and the James Tiptree Jr. Award.

It's been almost a month since the anime dropped and maybe you haven't heard of it - I haven't seen anyone talk about it since it was announced. Why? Well, it was for Netflix, a platform which, among is many sins, forgets it has anime (the most I have ever seen about Netflix and anime is in the context of their obtaining the Evangelion license and getting a new translation of debated quality done) and forgets it has exclusive anime, some of which are adaptations that should have been easy slam dunks ... if there was a budget. However poorly you may think Netflix handles its original shows or the shows they've rescued from cancellation, they do anime even dirtier.

It's also an anime adaptation of a series that has ended, the critical English language consciousness of which seems to have tapered off around the release of the sixth volume - in 2011 (and the coverage seems mixed to backhanded, despite the awards). The market and popular discussion continues to neglect josei titles. It probably doesn't help that Yoshinaga's earlier work was primarily BL - and the premise of Ooku seems ripe for gay romance - which currently exists in a space I can only call complicated in the English language community.

The timing of the anime seems well past the best by date in the Western market, even if it was in the hands of a semi-competent licensor.

On watching the first episode tonight (80 minutes, neatly encompassing the entire first volume), the animation - by Studio DEEN (who previously did Anime Girls' Night heartbreaking favourite Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, so we know they can do some hauntingly beautiful stuff) - is definitely not high budget. A lot of closeups of eyes in that very budget conscious, minimalist way. For the most part it's clean but unremarkable. Not terrible, but none of the visuals are going to be seared in your mind's eye. It may help that Yoshinaga's style is a simple, clean one, so the animation doesn't feel jarringly poor when compared to the source material (unlike the recent and infamously bad adaptation of Berserk).

I don't think this is another Way of the Househusband fumble from Netflix. The story is strong and engaging, particularly if you have any interest in trends in feminist science fiction examining gender roles and alternate social hierarchies involving same or shogunate era Japanese history. It seems like a serviceable adaptation of an excellent manga and it sucks that it feels like the deck is so stacked against it.

[gabriel-gabdiel]

【Draft】 Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 58: Déjà Vu

For this chapter, we’ll be harkening back to things like “The Mark of Zorro (1940)” and the impressive on-screen duel between Captain Esteban Pasquale and Don Diego Vega. 

Yahiko is feeling a bit of déjà vu from battling The Faceless. What is it about him that’s so familiar anyway?

Yahiko Myojin remembered the first time Yutaro "Cat Eyes" Tsukayama came back to Japan and the Kamiya Dojo after years of living abroad to seek treatment for his arm injury.

Yutaro was supposed to be injured by his traitorous "master", Raijuta Isurugi. He went overseas for treatment, which enabled him to regain use of his right arm for the most part but he still went "southpaw" or left handed during sparring matches.

Yes, that was right. Mr. Tsukayama had decided to still practice kendo instead of retire.

Inspired by this, Mr. Myojin promised to give his rival the match of his life, showing off his skill honed by his past battle experiences.

When they had their first sparring match in years, Yahiko expected to blow the one-armed Yutaro out of the water, only for Yutaro, with a one-handed handicap, end up making the fight close.

The goddamn magnificent bastard really was a kendo prodigy. Yutaro's careful counters from Gedan-no-Kamae (Earth Stance)`made Yahiko second guess his shots and miss his attacks from the Jodan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance).

Feeling indignant by these turn of events since he went through so much more than him after they last met, Yahiko dug deep into his soul to summon his past battle experiences into the match point blow that literally blasted Tsukayama's helmet off of his head.

He rocked his socks off and then some.

However, to Myojin's annoyance, he still had to do his best against the one-armed student.

Not only did Yutaro remember what little kendo instruction he got from Kaoru Kamiya. He expanded his knowledge somehow when he went overseas to get his arm treated.

He did not waste his time while undergoing treatment and rehabilitation for his nerve-damaged right arm that Raijuta had nearly lopped off.

The cunning "Cat Eyes" somehow added western martial arts and weapon techniques to his solid kendo arsenal, somehow merging east and west together to form a truly unique repertoire.

His approached his kenjutsu like fencing, fighting at a controlled tempo then bursting in speed at the right moments with fluid motion.

It took some time for Yahiko to figure out how Yutaro bested him half of the time, but he eventually realized that Cat Eyes was using mind games and what was known as the "Tactical Wheel" to outsmart him at every other match.

It was from this flashback that Yahiko figured out what this Brigands Guild member's sword techniques reminded him of.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Yahiko has seen the sword style of The Faceless before.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 58: Déjà Vu

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

Multiple things happened at once. Like a hurricane of events.

Meanwhile, the lion dance mascot full of martial artists retaliated against Gan by stretching itself like a snake around him and kicking him with spiked shoes and hidden daggers.

Like a wounded animal fighting for its life, even though it was actually multiple men wearing a costume.

"AUUUGH!" cried The Distressed Gan, who did his best to parry and block the slashing and lacerating kicks with his metal bat.  

"GAN!" cried out Yahiko Myojin and Munenori Minoe at their comrade.

Because Fabian La Cerca lost his dagger, he thought fast, grabbed hold of Tatsuya Minakata, and threw him through the already broken windows of a probably abandoned house in Chinatown.

This distracted Yahiko long enough for him to withdraw his thin rapier sword before the frightening strength of the eye-patched Munenori beside him could break his weapon in twain as well.

Then, for a split-second, a shocked Myojin and a pale-faced Minoe stood and stared at each other and the violent scenes before them, this brains barely registering what had just happened.

"H-Hey. Thanks for saving me, Minoe," said Yahiko, sheathing his sword and slipping it back on his cloth belt.

"N-No problem," stuttered Munenori. "You better go, Yahiko-chi! We'll keep the mercenaries occupied while you retrieve, uh, Kinta-chi's uncle."

"Of course. Thanks again. I owe you one! Thank Gan for me too!" answered Myojin before both turned and went opposite directions.

Or they would've had the lion mascot not suddenly appeared beside Munenori and snatched him off the ground with its unhinged puppet jaws, like a real lion biting its prey.

From behind the mascot hobbled the Gasping Gan, spurts of blood making small fountains on his legs and calves.

"AH! Minoe!" yelped Yahiko, intending to run after the eye-patched dual wielder but Gan stopped him cold with an outstretched hand and an open palm.

Without looking at him, Gan said, "Don't worry, Yoshi-boy. I'll take care of Patches. Go after The Masked Rider instead. Time is running out!"

"…Fine. Make sure you finish that mascot off!" said Yahiko, who finally sprinted towards the abandoned building where The Faceless threw Tatsuya.

Their brief hellos and goodbyes kept them from realizing how naïve their presumptions were.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

The cackling Kai Hidaka briefly distracted the two brothers from the same mother.

One was a Eurasian bastard child who somehow ended up as part of the Brigands Guild of international mercenaries.

The other was the grandson of a samurai turned pharmaceutical tycoon with generational wealth and significant government clout as an oligarch.

They then realized that somehow, the high-flying spidery ninja somehow defeated the formidable shinobi that the bastard with the bastard sword couldn't finish off.

"…You know what? I don't hate you, mate. You're a fine bloke to me," Lucas Grant said to his estranged half-brother, Kinta Minakata. "You spared me from having to deal with both you and that troublesome ninja bodyguard of yours so this ends up a fair fight."

Kinta spared a glance at the motionless Zan, whom he presumed had critically injured Lucas, but was actually somehow like a steam train running on fumes.

Maybe they should've double-teamed the bloody Prodigal Son while they had the chance. Maybe he was too "honorable" for his own good.

Their pattern from before resumed. The wounded but aggressive Luke plodded on, only blocking the most bone-cutting of sweeping slashes from Kinta to avoid getting his limbs lopped off.

Meanwhile, on Minakata's part, every last chopping blow or lunging stab from Grant was potentially a one-hit kill. He also had to watch out for his half-brother's pommel strikes too.

This was confirmed with how, despite outlanding Lucas in strikes, the Sanada Demon Zan succumbed to internal bleeding from a blow or stab.

Nevertheless, like with most of his fight with Zan, Luke couldn't land a significant blow on his big brother and his superior swordsmanship skill.

However, the bastard son of the Minakatas had started clipping and slicing bits and pieces of Kinta's flesh.

"It kind of irritates me that you're as good as you are despite being given everything in the world," confessed Luke.

They clashed swords again. The Akatsuki held true, but it could not stave off the longer reach and thicker steel of Lucas's bastard sword and its superior steel.

"I didn't know what to expect. A spoiled little rich boy, maybe? Someone who has no idea how cruel the world can be. An entitled dishrag of a man drowning in wealth and privilege. But you're something else, Big Brother."

Like a lion to a gazelle, Lucas stalked his prey, his strikes that previously whiffed and got countered slowly clipping and slashing his tiring brother, wearing him down.

However, like a gazelle to a lion, Kinta evaded Lucas. The bastard child of the Minakatas had yet to land a significant blow on him even as his collection of flesh wounds increased.

Even when Luke blocked the Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash) with his much longer, sturdier bastard sword, Kinta's Akatsuki (Red Moon) katana could still penetrate the block and leave cuts on him.

Deep cuts. Cuts that almost dug deep into his bone. His nerves. His veins. Or even his very soul.

Like a dashing stag's horns piercing through the lion's hide from mid-pounce. The prey fighting for its life, injuring its predator.

'Of course it wasn't going to be that easy,' thought Lucas with a smile that formed on his bloody mouth, his teeth dyed red. 'Fine. Anything that's worth anything should be this hard to get!'

***

Inside the nearby abandoned warehouse building…

Yahiko wandered into the area where The Faceless threw Tatsuya Minakata into, the banker's body messily crashing through the structure's western-style windows.

His slippers stepping on shards of glass that glistened in the moonlight, crushing them under his soles.

"HEY! Thin Man! Where are you? Are you still alive?" called out Yahiko, referring to the V.I.P. he was guarding.

Tatsuya Minakata, the banker son of the famous hatamoto-class samurai oligarchs of both the Shogunate and the Meiji Government, the Minakata Family.

One of the heirs of the huge Minakata Zaibatsu (Conglomerate), Tatsuya was next in line to inherit his family's vast fortune after his mother kicks the bucket. Or so Myojin heard.

He was followed by his younger brother the lawyer and their swordsman nephew, the former member of the Shogunate's special guard.

These people were so filthy rich, they'd make Chizuru Raikouji's family look poor. Or the drug dealer Kanryu Takeda look downright middle class. Or fellow oligarch Jusanro Tani quaint.

'Wonder what that's like,' thought Yahiko with a smirk and a head-shake, repressing memories of him pick-pocketing for the mob to help pay for his family's debts.

Even just one of the trinkets or heirlooms here, like a painting or a suit of armor, would've been enough to pay for his parents' debt with the yakuza. Maybe. It looked like they wanted to have him for keeps.

He maneuvered his sandaled feet through the glass shards like he were walking on eggshells. Shiny, sharp, painful eggshells.

He found Tatsuya in the nick of time. He lay there but not in a pool of his own blood, though he did receive several cuts from going through the window.

"Whew. Thank goodness I found you before The Faceless could get you, Thin Man," said Yahiko, his voice barely above a whisper. "…Uh, Tatsuya-san? You okay, bud?"

"…Y-You're fired," groaned Tatsuya. "I'm going to have my brother sue you for the injuries I've sustained, you teenaged brat!"

Myojin sighed in both relief and exasperation. "Yeah, you're welcome. Save your life? No prob. Think nothing of it."

"Save my life? My assassin just threw me through a window! I almost died!" yelped Kinta's uncle.

Yahiko then barely had time to parry and back away from the attacking Faceless in his next breath, its tip clipping his clavicle, drawing blood.

He cursed under his breath. If John Rathbone could get away with it, he'd kill him with a thousand cuts.

"You didn't kill Minakata Tatsuya yet?" accused Yahiko. "You had every chance to do so."

"I like to play with my prey," answered The Faceless, who now wore a different mask than before. "Half the fun of my assassination missions is the thrill of the hunt and triggering the primal instincts of my victims. Fight or flight."

Yahiko groaned, realizing he now had to deal with this pantomiming foreign invader with a mask shtick worse than the late Hannya from the Oniwabanshu (Castle Guardians).

Tatsuya himself said to The Faceless, "Forget the kid. Whatever your sponsor is paying to assassinate our family, I'll double it! Triple it, even! Stay and become our bodyguard and you could earn a fortune!"

"Watch your filthy mouth, my little piggy bank," said the master fencer. "Once the kid dies, I have no reason to let you live either."

"What a coincidence. I feel the same way about you, Faceless," said Yahiko, surprising even himself with the boldness of his words.

The Faceless smirked. "O-ho. You wouldn't care to translate that feeling into action, would you?"

"I might be tempted," the Son of Tokyo Samurai said.

"Would you, now?" The Faceless proceeded to put his right sword arm forward, pointing his rapier at Yahiko's face while his other hand rested on his hip, his left arm bent on its elbow.

He also had his right leg bent forward, his lead foot pointed at his opponent while his left rear leg and foot pointed to his left side.

The Faceless—who now decided to refer to himself as John Rathbone instead of Fabian La Cerca—told the samurai kid, "Didn't realize you brought your friends along. I miss my dagger. Now I can't show off Fabian's sword and dagger technique."

'Good,' thought the teenager, resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at the fencer lest he cut it out. 'I can barely land a hit on you with that dagger around as is. Thanks, Minoe.'

As the moonlight touched the naked blade of Yahiko's inherited sakabatou, The Faceless remarked, "What is with that sword of yours? Is it a sickle you're wielding or a sword? The blade is on the wrong side. You can't cut someone down like that."

Yahiko then said, "It's not for cutting down people. It's for saving people. It's the sword of life."

***

Kinta Minakata didn't mean to retreat. He got forced to do so.

Like sheep being herded back to their corral by a farm dog. Or a pack of wolves picking the herd apart for lunch.

Was he really luring his half-brother to a trap or was he being herded by him instead? It depended on which one of them would ultimately survive this encounter.

He'd actually been waiting for a counter opportunity that never came. Instead, he faced constant, unrelenting pressure from his supposed half-brother.

The literal Minakata bastard.

He didn't know what to think about it. His mind whirled of memories of being bullied and made fun of by his peers for having his father cuckolded or invaded by a foreigner, stealing away his wife who birthed a bastard.

The child whose father ruined his parents' marriage and led his own father to commit sepukku (ritual suicide) by hara-kiri (disembowelment) and later decapitation.

This devilish blond man was like all that past trauma of his personified. This son of a bitch.

No, wait. He'd never call him that. He'd never shame his mother that way.

Rather, he was a son of a gun by the truest sense of the term. A "gun" referred to a foreign military person, he believed. Sons of guns tended to be children of navy sailors.

The phrase potentially originated in a Royal Navy direction that pregnant women aboard smaller naval vessels had to give birth in the space between the broadside guns to keep the gangways and crew decks clear.

He would've pondered on this more had his relentless half-brother gave him enough breathing room and time for his brain to process this bombshell of a revelation.

He'd nailed several counters at Lucas already but he wouldn't go down. As if him attacking while already bleeding and injured by Zan was a lie or ruse to get Kinta's guard down.

The man's stamina was impressive. Unlike his stamina, which was the complete opposite.

Lucas had been fighting, beating, and killing bodyguards left and right for what felt like hours and there he was, fresh like a daisy.

Or rather, the presence of blood seemed to sharpen his senses, activating his fight-or-flight instincts. Or a shark going into a feeding frenzy. Even if it was his own blood.

Luke's wild, beastly eyes shone in the dark, lit by a sliver of moonlight. Like the eyes of an animal ready to pounce. To prove that sometimes even the savviest of humans had to let nature take its course and succumb to getting mauled by a lion or bear.

Cunning and careful planning could only take you so far in the wild.

Kinta also had one serious problem. Try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to hate this stranger who tried his best to kill the entire Minakata Family.

He shouldn't feel this way, especially against such a dangerous man who already murdered so many of his family's elite guards as well as several of the Sanada Ninjas.

Everyone's lives were at stake against the Brigands Guild of assassins and mercenaries.

***

Yahiko remembered Kaoru's words like it was yesterday.

"The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is a sword style that my father developed during the Meiji Era after surviving the turbulence of the Bakumatsu."

Her father and the founder of the Kamiya Dojo, Koshijiro Kamiya, didn't approve of murderous swords. With the ambition for swords that gave life, Koshijiro and his daughter Kaoru gave this sword style everything they had for 10 years.

"The sakabatou is a sword that gives life instead of takes it. A life-giving sword," said Yahiko, echoing what Kaoru and even Kenshin had told him in the past on why they chose to teach him Kamiya Kasshin Ryu instead of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

"A life-giving sword? What utter hogwash is that? Next you'll tell me you want a healing gun, or a bomb that puts your limbs back together!" mocked The Faceless.

"You're lucky because I follow a non-killing sword style. Even though I want to kill you to avenge the people you've killed, I'll settle on defeating you," said Yahiko while falling into his Water Stance.

He inwardly cringed at his audacity for saying those words but knew deep down that even though he didn't share Kenshin's past regrets, he also wasn't too keen to spill blood himself.

He promised both Kenshin and Kaoru he wouldn't. Let the endless murders end with the Bakumatsu, they said.

"You are aware that this is a duel to the death, child. I'm under no obligation to spare your life even if you're foolish enough to spare mine," said The Faceless.

"A sword is made to kill. Let me teach you that painful lesson, boy."

"Spare me the speech. I've heard it all before.  'Swords are weapons.' 'Swordsmanship is the art of killing.' But even if you think I'm sugarcoating the truth, I can and will show you what a life-giving sword is all about."

Myojin wondered if he could back up his bluster or if he wasn't merely bluffing. A sword that gave life instead of taking it away was patently ridiculous and totally contradictory.

What pushed him to say such things? What made him choose to believe Kaoru's flowery words and her father's idealistic beliefs like Kenshin did when they first met?

"Heh. Is that so? Spoken like a child who has never gotten blood in your hands," harrumphed the masked Faceless, his mask-covered nose seemingly upturned at Yahiko.. "You're a child."

"Yeah, and? So what?" said Yahiko. "I'd like to keep it that way. I don't want to be a murderer. I just want to beat you."

Yahiko did a Simple Attack from the Jodan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance) of having the sakabatou raised high up over his head, his muscles tense and his shuffling footwork gauging the distance by feel.

Whether it was a slash or a thrust after a miss from any of the eight directions as shown in the Kuzu Ryu Sen, it didn't matter.

He expected the Parry Riposte to happen and was actually baiting him to strike to do a combination strike or Compound Attack (attacks with feints) or even a Counter Attack (responding in a way that avoided the riposte while landing the counter).

Patiently, Rathbone's riposte turned into another circular parry as he danced around Yahiko's probing swings and answered with blocks and deflection, as though figuring out the kid wasn't committing fully to the strikes enough to land an effective counter to the counter or Counter Time.

Yahiko did more feints to draw out a possible counterattack from John Rathbone that he could counter or do his own Counter Time. Or he even countered an obvious feint from Rathbone, hoping to react fast enough to counter the resulting Counter Time with his own Feint in Time or a feinted counterattack.

'So he's another samurai who knows the Tactical Wheel,' thought Rathbone. 'Fascinating. Kenjutsu isn't the primitive, ineffective martial art I thought it was.'

The Faceless then read and parried all his feints until he found an angle where he could do an off-time riposte before Yahiko could react.

The thrust didn't stab the teenager in the heart, but only because John slashed at the last second to avoid Myojin's Hadachi (Sword Catch) technique.

"You're a funny fellow, kid," said Rathbone with a chuckle while wiping Yahiko's blood from his triangular blade. He then turned towards the injured Minakata and declared, "You have a champion with you, Minakata Tatsuya. And what a champion."

For his part, Tatsuya Minakata managed to crawl to the nearest boxes and rest his back there, sitting away from these two dueling fools.

He'd give a king's ransom to have both of these dangerous idiots beheaded.

***

Judging by the additional wounds Kinta Minakata gave his bastard brother, the gulf in skill between the two was apparent.

So why didn't it matter? Why didn't the long-lost "Takuto Minakata" crumple down and die from his strikes?

Did he really need to cut him through the bone, lop off his limbs, or decapitate him to kill him? Otherwise, he wouldn't die?

He still kept standing. Biding his time. Parrying endlessly, like his (presumably) sword master The Faceless would, in order to find an opening.

Luke's defense was practically nonexistent compared to Rathbone. However, he more than made up for it with his limitless stamina and out-of-this-world resiliency.

In comparison, the only blood staining Kinta's clothes were that of his brother's or any of the Brigands Guild he'd faced off against so far.

And yet a he felt a sense of gloom at the back of his head. He had to keep his guard up as long as Lucas kept moving.

The blonde foreign devil looked injured but to be honest, none of his bleeding wounds were fatal. They were just flesh wounds.

Also, Lucas noticed that he hadn't landed a significant strike on his brother for quite some time. Injured and bleeding, Luke charged forward, cutting the distance between them and making it harder to land full-strength counters.

Like he'd been prolonging this fight to memorize his older brother's tempo, range, tells, tactics, techniques, tendencies, and rhythm. As though a war of attrition favored him the most.

Now every time Kinta attempted a Full Moon Slash, Luke braced himself to block the strike with a two-handed parry before it could reach its apex.

He also sidestepped the slash with a blade deflection. He even minimized the impact of an unblocked or belatedly blocked technique by hopping backwards and letting the arcing slash push him away.

And just like that, Kinta's ultimate attack had been sealed. He couldn't even do a Blue Moon Slash anymore because Lucas wouldn't let him even land one Full Moon Slash.

On his part, Luke didn't relent on any of his attacks either, with every slash, stab, and chop of his with the potential to maim, bisect, dissect, draw, or quarter anyone it hit.

Again, Minakata felt like a helpless child dodging carriages or a stamped of spooked horses in open traffic.

His brother really swung for the fences. And even if his full commitment to his strikes left him wide open, he was more than willing to take a shallow slash to land a deeper one.

How very Japanese of him for a gaijin. He embodied the very definition of the Japanese saying, "Let them cut your flesh, and you will break their bones."

***

By the age of fifteen, Yahiko had become a national champion level swordsman feared and revered in Tokyo as "The Catcher of a Thousand Blades" thanks to his shirahadori (blade catching) mastery.

At that time, he had also mastered Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, proving as much with the feat of stopping the first five attacks from Kenshin's Kuzu Ryu Sen (Nine-Headed Dragon Flash) technique once.

Nevertheless, Myojin grit his teeth as he faced off against The Faceless' comparatively tamer yet more methodical attacks.

Having to deal with an elusive opponent who picked his spots, took his sweet time to attack, you couldn't hit, could read all of your attacks and feints felt like pulling teeth.

Or a thousand paper cuts while submerged in a lemon bath. These little nicks that were shallower than a wound yet somehow felt worse, like you'd been set on fire.

The difference between death and torture, even.

"We have a hero with us," mocked Rathbone, daring Yahiko to strike all the way with circular parries and inviting thrusts. "I'll gladly play the role of the villain now. Don't disappoint me, hero."

John Rathbone really was the spirit and image of Yutaro Tsukayama's fencing-like kenjutsu, right down to slowing the pace to a crawl in order to peck and prick the enemy to death.

Or at least anger an opponent enough to make him charge recklessly and commit with full bone-cutting slashes then make him pay for his recklessness.

'…How did this gaijin defeat the echolocation ninja anyway?' Yahiko thought as they again exchanged parries and dodges. 'A ninja who could detect and react to him instantly. And could mess with his rhythm. What is his secret to solving those problems?'

Yahiko observed that no matter how hard he feinted or attempted to interrupt The Faceless' rhythm, he'd find a way to recover, parry, or dodge then reset the assault or counter off any of the samurai teen's attempts at charging.

He had a safety zone he could shell up into or retreat towards to cover up any gaps or openings in his stance or his actions.

Even when the Sanada Demon interrupted his rhythm, he could still counter off any openings presented to him by a charging opponent.

He always set the pace and countered at more flexible or awkward angles compared to the comparatively frigid stances of kenjutsu.

He was one step ahead every time and did mind games on what he'd do next. His wait-and-see strategy also allowed him to adapt and counter any tactics thrown at him.

Just like Yutaro's modus operandi.

Because of his injured hand, Tsukayama relied more on an overall strategy that used his opponent's strengths against them instead of relying on tactics and discovering his opponent's weaknesses throughout the course of the battle.

However, this persistent sense of déjà vu (French for "already dreamed") merely pushed Yahiko further, his curved sword clashing in sparking flashes with Faceless' thin straight blade with endless probing parries to find openings or to create them.  

Fortunately, Yahiko's newly acquired skills of dodging, blocking, parrying, and cutting the distance from a retreating opponent limiting the amount of thrusts and ripostes from John.

His endless drills with May Brooks/Satsuki Sakaguchi had paid dividends. Otherwise, he would've been skewered by the Faceless long ago.

The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu master also remembered why he went into his Musha Shugyo (Warrior's Pilgrimage) in the first place. To defeat his rival, Yutaro, and his defensive kendo skills.

***

You shouldn't let his crimson mask of blood deceive you. Lucas Grant was more dangerous now than he was before he started bleeding.

It could be that Lucas was stronger and more durable than Kinta the same way Luke's bastard sword could break the samurai's katana because of its higher grade, carbon-rich steel.

However, it didn't necessarily matter.

Kinta was no mere injured animal fighting tooth and nail for his life by letting his base instincts take over either.

The Mimawarigumi Battousai was as dangerous to his fellow men as men were to animals.

Humans were weaker than most animals yet they somehow ended up becoming the dominant species in the world.

Kinta was no mere beast. He was more than a lion. He was a man. A hunter. The human animal that was on top of the food chain. The apex predator of apex predators.

Granted, a human wasn't faster than a cheetah. Nor stronger than a gorilla. Nor more brutal than a tiger or lion. His nails weren't as sharp as bear claws. Without clothes, he was as exposed as a naked mole rat or a chick that fell off its nest.

By all accounts, in the animal kingdom, a human should be prey instead of the apex predator.

However, humans weren't as weak as one would think.

They had opposable thumbs like apes and monkeys, allowing them the ability to make tools and tightly grip sharp weapons to make up for their lack of claws and raw strength.

They were long-distance endurance runners. While animals could outrun any human at any given time, a human was adept at stalking and tiring such animals down with unrelenting determination.

Any animal could beat humans in a race but they'd tire out trying to outpace a human in a marathon race.

Humans could also sweat, which allowed them to efficiently cool down and prevent themselves from overheating due to activity.

Most animals did not have as effective of a cooling system as humans, so any exertion of commensurate effort on their part, like fleeing or fighting for their life, will leave them more exhausted compared to the self-cooling human.

However, the weapon Kinta had in between his ears was what made him the most dangerous.

The human weapon of intelligence.

A human was able to plan, work with groups of other humans, and make tools. He was no mere animal acting on instinct.

The most intelligent and methodical of humans could turn hunters like any of the big cats into the hunted by springing traps on them or using projectiles against them, from rocks to spears.

Humans could also communicate with each other through language. They could take down even huge animals like elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses by tactics, traps, subterfuge, and cooperation.

Even as Lucas pressured Kinta to retreat from an endless barrage of decapitating strikes—knowing his large chunk of steel he called a sword could withstand a strike better than the thinner though sharper katana—the samurai conserved his energy.

He'd memorized Luke's tactics, which kept him safe from even the wildest strikes through pattern recognition. Like a human stalking his prey and memorizing their movement and habits before going in for the kill.

Even as Kinta panted and sweated from the effort, his intelligence kept him from succumbing to wild beasts like his reckless brother.

Even as he tasted the rusty tang of his own blood in his mouth after clearing his throat, his brother still could barely touch him.

Alas, his brother was no mere beast either. Lucas also resembled the human animal, particularly in terms of his tireless stamina, quick recovery, hand-eye coordination, and ability to outlast his prey like an ancient hunter-gatherer.

A modern human with caveman-like strength and instincts.

***

"…In the next attack, I'll parry thrice then do a riposte," said The Faceless all of a sudden, alarming Yahiko. "Pay attention now."

Was he going to really do it? Was he going to tell him his next attack and still land, confident that Myojin couldn't come up with a counter? Or was he lying about doing that and he'd counter a different way?

And so Yahiko attempted to fly and bash Faceless on the noggin, only for him to get parried.

He then attempted to break the sword with the Tsui Gami (God Hammer), with got neutralized with two parries, followed by a riposte that he tried to counter with the Shippu Jinrai Dotou no Ken (Gale Thunderclap Billow Sword) to the wrist.

However, the riposte ripped through regardless, with Rathbone turning his wrist to parry the blow with his elongated sword handle.  He was landing at will now.

Damn you, Cat Eyes. Oh wait, this wasn't Cat Eyes. This was The Faceless.

Rathbone said, "Wipe yourself, kiddo. You're bleeding."

"…I needed that scratch to awaken me!" responded Yahiko.

Fine. Whatever. He'd been planning to use this technique against Yutaro but… what the hell. He might as well use it on this mirror image of Yutaro's kenjutsu.

Yutaro's swordsmanship was such that it didn't matter if you used your best techniques at him, he'd use your strengths as your weakness with a strategy that figured the whole essence of your own kenjutsu out.

Yahiko was different. He was the Yang to Yutaro's Yin. Or vice-versa.

Instead of figuring out a strategy to take out an opponent, he'd rather wing it or improvise, like when he figured out the weakness of the high-flying Hennya Kariwa was someone who could fly like him.

Any strategy Yahiko exhibited was purely incidental. He was more a think-on-your-feet kind of guy who relied on gut instinct to think up new tactics on the fly.

And his gut instinct told him that The Faceless had the same fundamental weakness as Yutaro.

"Next we'll do a Beat Parry Riposte," bragged Rathbone, only for him to frown when Yahiko charged at him. Like an enraged bull annoyed by all the cape waving of the matador.

'Huh. Fine. If he wants to play to my strengths, I'll indulge him,' thought John, preparing to do a Beat Parry Riposte regardless of what attack, counterattack, or feint Myojin had in mind.

Yahiko instead responded with a Counter Time. So it was a feint.

'No problem, time to adjust…?!' thought John before getting blindsided by a simple head strike, the blunt end of the sakabatou hammering his noggin and leaving a crack on his mask.

To himself, Rathbone wondered, 'What just happened?'

"Maybe next time, you'd have the common sense to not tell me what you're about to do next, old man," the petulant teenager answered back.

***

Back after The Faceless recently faced-off against Kinta Minakata, he relayed the following information to Lucas Grant.

"...I didn't notice it at first since I'm no a spring chicken myself, but Minakata Kinta has stamina problems. He slows down the longer you prolong a fight. Just like me, because of my age. Your youth will win out as long as you can withstand his extensive swordsman experience."

"Does he now?" Luke had asked with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "That's fascinating. Tell me more about Niisan (Big Brother)."

"Make your duel into a war of attrition. I haven't met anyone who has ever outlasted you in a fight. Turn it into a brawl. Throw away all technique. Don't bother outthinking him, just keep on striking. Take him into deep waters. Drown him. Show him how you've survived after all these years."

And thus Lucas did just that. Running high on adrenalin and testing the limits of his monstrous stamina, Luke kept his breathing low to conserve his energy.

He kept his frenetic pace by taking breaks while Kinta second guessed his next move and using twitch reflexes to counter or respond without thought in the middle of his rest period.

Boy, was his big brother a tough nut to crack. Most other swordsmen would've succumbed to him by now. However, the Minakata boys were apparently built different.

He'd thrown everything at him but a kitchen sink, and all he had to show for it were minor scratches and bruises.

Like he'd merely been roughhousing him on the playground like his childhood bully instead of doing his best to assassinate him then and there.

He'd poured the pressure on him, each of his full-power strikes killing blows in their own right, but the high-ranking hatamoto samurai remained cool under pressure. He had ice water in his veins.

The plan was to push his half-brother to his limits and run him ragged, knowing full well that he had respiratory problems stemming from his time with Hidden Christian rebels.

However, the red-faced Luke himself ached all over. He had a splitting headache as well. He underestimated the toll of exerting himself so much, yet he ended up swinging at nothing but air every time.

That cunning bastard. Even as Grant attempted to tire Minakata out, Minakata turned the tables on him and tired him out instead with all his missed swings and over-exertion.

His threshold for pain might be high, but he was testing its limits with all the cuts and lacerations he kept barely blocking from the Mimawarigumi Battousai.

He was also left to wonder: Was Kinta's deadpan face the look of someone out of breath and dying from his effort? He couldn't tell.

Kinta looked like he just went through a light jog. He'd broken a sweat, finally, but what of it? Did it compare to the buckets of blood Luke had already spilled?

Which one of them really was the more tired of the two?

Luke gulped hard, bracing himself for a long volley of attacks to come just to break apart his half-brother's clam shell defense and counters.

He had to do this though. Kinta Minakata was the biggest hurdle towards him getting his revenge against the family that abandoned him and his mother. That turned his life into a living hell.

Even with The Faceless' cunning strategy in mind, everything was still going to go down to the wire. Survival of the fittest.

'No hard feelings, Big Brother.'

***

Yahiko fell into his neutral Water Stance once again.

A basic kendo stance that invited all sorts of fencing attacks or counters at every corner from the more mobile sword style.

The Faceless' sword arm swung like a pendulum again, ready to parry, slash, or thrust at a moment's notice, with it serving as his means of gauging his opponent's next…!

The floor buckled beneath him. In a second, Yahiko had struck the ground with a Dou Gami (God on Earth).

Dammit. That technique had a wide berth and swing! Why couldn't Rathbone anticipate it this time?

Caught flatfooted, John Rathbone hopped to stable ground, away from the sudden explosion of rubble and debris, his sword ready to preemptively attack or counterattack.

Yahiko emerged from the smoke with a running start. Rathbone did a counter thrust that turned into a parry at the last second.

They ended up pushing off against each other with the strength of their swings, John's rapier trembling from Myojin's attempt at a blade-breaking Tsui Gami.

"The Faceless's blade is not so firm," the samurai kid said in jest.

The Brigands Guild member answered, "Still firm enough to run you through."

"Is that right? Make sure to keep your wrists safe from harm, then."

"What…?"

While Myojin was initially intimidated by The Faceless calling out his attacks, he realized it was no different from kendo matches calling out the part of the armor they hit when they were having formal matches.

It was up to the opponent to register what was said and respond. And respond he did.

"KOTE! DOUTOU NO KEN!"

As Yahiko's original signature move as a child—the Gale Thunderclap Billow Sword—landed on Rathbone's wrist, disarming him, the samurai teen inwardly grinned.

That was the weakness of The Faceless. Same as Yutaro Tsukayama.

When push came to shove, they'd wait for an opportunity to counter rather than attack 9 times out of 10.

Even when they attacked, they tended to bait a counterattack first to make their attack a counterattack.

The only time they attacked was when they had run out of options, but at that point they become vulnerable to counterattacks themselves.

Timing a Counter Time right in a way that they didn't see it coming was the key to success.

To John's chagrin, he heard Tatsuya holler at him. "Well, well, well. The fencing master has met his equal."

'My equal, you say?' thought the indignant Faceless while rubbing his wrists. 'Excuse me? Him? My equal? Balderdash.'

***

From the high-pace exchange of slashes and parries, the fight between blood brothers ground to almost a halt.

They paced themselves equally, with Luke pushing for the action while Kinta defended and kept an eye out for counter opportunities.

Their breathing was heavy. They panted like tired dogs in the middle of a summer heat wave. Their fight that lasted minutes felt like hours of nonstop trench war.

Neither willing to give ground. One fought to salvage his honor. The other fought to enact revenge upon the family who abandoned him.

On one hand, there was Kinta Minakata. He glistened with light perspiration from the effort and a couple of cuts and bruises, but his breathing was as ragged as his half-brother's.

The only blood on him was his brother's, among others. As expected of the sole Mimawarigumi survivor given the same moniker as the Ishin Shishi's own Battousai.  

His wheezing and occasional coughing belied his pristine condition. He also looked paler, perhaps even bluer, then usual.

On the other hand, there was Lucas Grant. He was supposed to be named Takuto Minakata, but his blond hair and blue eyes after he was born gave him away.

He looked like he'd gone from hell and back after taking on two of three Sanada Demons. However, his movements looked somehow sharper and livelier than his brother from another father.

For someone who looked like he was tortured, there remained a spring in his step. As though the blood on him was not his own. Or perhaps bleeding somehow invigorated him.

Which one of them was more exhausted? Which one of them was on the verge of death? The one who looked like he was almost dead or the one who sounded like he was almost dead?

Those were the thoughts filling Lieutenant Satoru Sakaguchi as he cradled his daughter near him while warily giving the side eye on the other remaining Brigands Guild member.

For his part, Kai Hidaka himself watched the bullfight of a match between fellow brigand Lucas and his brother, Kinta. If he were unmasked, perhaps he'd show an agape mouth.

Neither of the three moved from their positions as tensions rose between the panting, gasping Minakata Brothers.

The heavy breathing and groaning soon relaxed and slowed until they stopped altogether.

The two Minakata Brothers then stood up at the same time. They had saved up all their strength for this last salvo.

They controlled their breath and measured the distance between them by eyesight. They seemed to breathe almost in cadence with one another.

Slowly but surely, Kinta sheathed his blade. Meanwhile, Lucas kept his hunk of sharpened iron stabbed into the ground, waiting for the right moment to pull it out and lift it for an attack.

***

Yahiko thought about running after or even stomping on Rathbone's rapier on the factory floor to break it apart, but its owner had already dove to get a hold of it.

Oh well. Thusly, the Tokyo Samurai Descendant said, "For my next trick, I'll break that sword of yours apart."

John harrumphed. So now the kid was calling his shot as well? "You dare use my own gimmick against me, Myojin Yahiko?"

"Yessir. I sure do dare." The Tokyo Samurai Descendant fell back to his familiar Water Stance.

Rathbone himself fell into his En Garde fencing stance in kind, bouncing on his heels and measuring the distance with probing rapier thrusts.

Knowing what would happen next. They both knew, actually.

Rathbone had figured out how Yahiko was landing his strikes. The samurai kid used the same preparatory stance to initiate all of his offense, transitioning suddenly to other stances from the basic kendo stance if he had to.

This way, he gave no "tell" or "signal" to what he was about to do next. His stance remained neutral at every exchange.

All of his techniques, from the Revisal Techniques to the original Kamiya Kasshin Ryu and even his imitation Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu moves could be done from the Chudan-no-Kamae.

Making Rathbone second-guess which attack to counter allowed Yahiko to react to his belated counters in time and do the appropriate Counter Time.

In this scenario, even a "telegraphed" attack like Dou Gami could land, because if John were to notice it in time and counter, Yahiko had enough time to react and turn the strike into a feint and Counter Time.

"Genei Gami (Phantom God)," Myojin whispered.

Hiding all his techniques' preparatory movements from the neutral stance to better read his opponent was the next step of his Revisal Techniques.

And as the blocked Dou Gami finally gave Yahiko enough room to execute the Tsui Gami, Rathbone's rapier finally broke into two pieces.

Alas, this was what Rathbone bet on.

With a gloved hand, he grabbed hold of one piece of the broken sword and dual wielded the blades, blocking the samurai kid's follow-up strike with the bottom half and stabbing him in the shoulder with the top half.

"My equal? Really? ¡Qué huevá más grande! (What an annoyance!)" said John Rathbone, who'd transformed into the Spaniard Fabian La Cerca at the last second upon finding a way to turn his rapier into his favored sword and dagger weapons.

"AUGH!" said Yahiko, who had gripped The Faceless' wrist in time to keep the rapier from reaching his vital organs, his face twisted in anguish.

"You're 100 years too early to be facing me, child."

***

To Lucas's surprise, it was Kinta who spoke first after his katana slid to its scabbard with a click. He had one question for him.

"What happened to Mother?" asked the heir to the Minakata Zaibatsu fortune.

"She's dead," said the Prodigal Son matter-of-factly. "Your family killed her. Called her a traitor to her nation. A whore to the gaijin invaders. Disowned her. Cast her aside. Banished her as their black sheep. Forgot about her altogether, like she didn't exist. Does that answer your question, Big Brother?"

"…."

Despite himself, Satoru murmured, "So the rumors were true. Damn."

Beside him, the officer's daughter stirred, pretending to be asleep but clearly hearing what Kinta's yonger brother said.

Azuma Minakata committed ritual suicide after his wife slept with a foreigner and bore their bastard son. Afterwards, Aoi Minakata was never heard from again.

The Minakatas pretended she never existed and thus she didn't. Until now.

The two finally addressed the elephant in the proverbial room, clearing the air between them.

It was the very thing that held them back and kept them from going all out. It left them wondering what they were even fighting for.

Now they know. The Minakatas committed an unforgivable sin and their unknown grandchild had come to collect.

Also, like cowards, they used their precious heir to the throne to defend themselves against retribution, making him implicit to their crimes. An accessory to murder.

Lucas would've rather drawn and quartered his cowardly Uncle Kaneda. Or tortured the pride out of his arrogant Uncle Tatsuya before beheading him.

Maybe even mercy-kill his Grandmother Mieko. Then piss on the grave of his late Grandfather Toshiro.

Luke had been disguising himself as their bodyguard all this time for a reason. To gauge whether they deserved retribution or if they changed from their evil ways. What he saw of them steeled his resolve. Most of them deserved what was coming to them.

Alas, their honorable nephew or grandson Kinta was in his way from committing justified familicide.

It couldn't be helped. They were both victims of circumstance.

The two then charged at each other, Kinta waiting for the right moment to draw his Akatsuki (Red Moon) katana and Lucas preparing a full two-handed swing of his bastard sword.

***

The Faceless's body stood up in attention, as though preparing to march. He then shifted to his fencing stance, his free arm settling on his hips, his jousting or fencing hand moving in circles in front of him.

Yahiko was now faced with two problems. One, his shoulder got injured, so his reaction time had been physically diminished.  

Two, The Faceless was back to using two swords, so even the Genei Gami's ability to hide which attack he was using could not overcome Fabian La Cerca merely blocking or parrying with his other arm.

They were back to square one. Only this time, the game of cat and mouse was over. The cat won and the mouse ended up too injured to still play with.

The cat was about to eat him now.

'Oh yeah? Well screw that!'

Throwing caution to the wind, Yahiko shifted to the offensive Fire Stance this time. His true signature stance—an all-offense one focused on striking at the precise moment.

He feinted and baited the dual-wielding fencing master for all he was worth.

However, he couldn't land a counter-counterstrike this time because Faceless had one other trick up his sleeve other than the broken tip of his rapier. He also broke his rhythm.

He stopped. Paused. Avoided committing into a regular tempo or pattern to allow himself to react even at the last second in case he again misread an attack or feint from Yahiko's Phantom God.

He shifted from fast to slow at irregular intervals, like the clumsiest and drunkest dance partner determined to step on your feet at every turn.

For, unbeknownst to Myojin, this was how La Cerca ultimately beat the tempo-altering, echolocating techniques of the bat ninja Baku.

Furthermore, La Cerca could shift between attacking and defending with either sword arm. He could turn his swords into dual shields or shift between sword and shield on either hand at a moment's notice, depending on the exchange.

The Faceless outclassed the injured and slower samurai in every single way.

However, before the fencer could finish the samurai off with another stab or even an arterial cut to make him bleed so much he'd pass out and die, he had to deflect shuriken from out of the blue and retreat.

A certain ninjutsu master just came back from retrieving the horses and carriage that got spooked earlier by paid Chinese mercenaries.

The steadfast ninja arrived just in time and almost blinded La Cerca with twin kunai to the two exposed eye slits on his mask.

"Kinta! I mean, Kaita!" said Yahiko, mixing up the names of these people he only recently met. "You came back! I thought you abandoned us!"

"Of course I did," said Kaita with a shrug. "I still have a mission to complete, Yojimbo (Bodyguard)."

"Where's the carriage?" asked Myojin.

"It's parked near an open field. The horses are tied there," answered the shinobi. "I originally wanted to run The Faceless over, but then you entered this building."

"A shadow dares defeat me?" said Fabian, his chuckle echoing from underneath his plain white face mask. "Mierda (Shit). The only shadow allowed to defeat me is the Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior)."

Kaita looked at Yahiko then at La Cerca. "You're right. I am but a mere shadow. And that's how we'll defeat you."

The next thing they knew, like a magic trick, Tatsuya had disappeared, prompting The Faceless to action. He had no choice, they took away his bargaining chip.

***

Just like with Yahiko and his Genei Gami, Kaita's invisibility trick made it tough to predict the trajectory of his projectiles.

Thusly, Kaita disappeared from their midst, melting into the darkness of the already dimly lit building in order to attack in the shadows like the coward that he was.

Such was the deviousness of these so-called oriental assassins. They were the yellow peril for a reason, or so Fabian thought.

Either warrior proved tricky for The Faceless to handle on their own, but now they'd decided to join forces, they were double the trouble.

Fine. He'd take them both on at the same time, if need be.

Yahiko and La Cerca clashed blades once more, only this time the kid samurai wielded his iron sheathe like a second blunt sword but with a reverse grip to counteract Fabian's sword-and-dagger technique, just like before in the narrow alleyway.

Interesting. But what about The Faceless' broken rhythm?

Yahiko answered the baits to counterattack by simply attack. He didn't need to dance to the broken rhythm of Faceless' tempo. He'd rather force Faceless to move to his own beat or get smacked  by a wayward strike.

A Simple Attack. Or a series of simple attacks. No Compound Attacks. No feints. No parries.  No counters. Nothing fancy. Just pure relentlessness.

His offense was his defense (along with occasional dodges and whiffs).

However, it wasn't all predictable. He swung for the fences using slashes that changed levels from high to low. Head to body. Or even hips, thighs, and knees.

His adrenalin rush allowed him to persevere, his shoulder throbbing from the stab earlier.

"Good effort, Faceless-san," said Yahiko with a smirk after Fabian countered another God Hammer with a crisscrossing double-bladed block.

The Faceless answered, "My next will be even better, my fancy clown."

Yahiko's unrelenting attacks and chase down then became unintentional counterattacks because he wasn't timing them to counter any responses from La Cerca.

He merely overwhelmed him with his own responses, like a talkative person talking over and silencing someone else with his endless stream of words. He did multiple Dou Gami blasts on the floor to mess with his footwork or Tsui Gami attempts to break or disarm what was left of his rapier.

The Faceless couldn't even parry anymore due to rough state Yahiko's sword-breaking techniques left his swords at. However, Fabian couldn't be easily overwhelmed.

He reestablished his broken tempo by finding counter opportunities from Yahiko's own overwhelming offense. Like slipping in side comments or sarcastic quips here and there that silenced even the chattiest fellow.

He also upped his reaction time, knowing he was basically taking on a tiring one-armed young man, before figuring out his tempo and countering the attacks in kind but stopping short from getting baited into a Counter Time.

He also bided his time, knowing full well Yahiko had to exert more effort to land his strikes than he did, who in contrast merely had to react to him and his frenetic pace.

"Are you tiring, Yojimbo?" asked Kaita from the shadows.

"Just sit tight and I'll take you on in a moment!" retorted Yahiko with a bloody grin.

To himself, he wondered if this was how a duel with "Cat Eyes" Tsukayama would've unfolded at this point. A tug of war between timing and tempo.

The Faceless, on his part, had also been dodging shuriken, spikes, nails, and other projectiles from the shadow ninja's guerilla tactics and assistance to slow him down and give Yahiko more opportunities to strike.

His broken rhythm that saved him from even Baku's screaming tempo-dictation technique and Zan's echolocation accuracy also made him a reactive mobile target that avoided both Yahiko and Kaita's shared attempts at swatting him down.

For an attack to land, it needed timing and positioning. The purely instinctual Yahiko made up for missed or whiffed strikes with even more strikes or follow-throughs.

Combinations on top of combinations to the head and torso that forced Fabian on the defensive in an endless series of parries and blocks.

'Ah. He fights just like Luke,' The Faceless realized. 'An endless stream of follow-through attacks and recoveries.'

It really was feast or famine with this child. No middle ground.

Hesitation was what increased the effectiveness of La Cerca's broken rhythm. Yahiko counteracted that by not caring if he missed and simply striking in bunches, using the misses to adjust his range from the target better and correct the miss with successive blows.

However, the untouchable Fabian La Cerca started figuring Yahiko's tempo out while avoiding or parrying Kaita's shuriken from the background with his makeshift dagger like it was an afterthought.

He danced around both Myojin's close-quarter strikes and the Sanada Ninja's long-range projectiles, while sneaking in cutting counters that stopped the samurai kid's charge cold.

Like with Baku, La Cerca assimilated and countered off of his opponent's rhythm completely while dodging their attacks and counters at the same time.

Everyone had their own rhythm. However, everyone else couldn't counter The Faceless in kind because of his own broken rhythm that changed in accordance to the circumstances.

Unrelenting offense was no solution to his broken rhythm because it only made the attacker vulnerable to his counters.

Their dance of parries and thrusts continued as Fabian swooped in for the kill, with him completely memorizing Yahiko's tempo and countering at every turn.

Beat. Parry. Beat. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Counter. Over and over. Predictable. How utterly predictable.

Yahiko started looking pretty rough, like the bloody Lucas did after facing off against Zan.

The kid's tight mini dodges, constant head movement, sword-stealing attempts, and his own school's cross-armed parry and riposte (Hadome and Hawatari) kept him in the match, though.

Yahiko, Kaita, and even Fabian noticed a small window of vulnerability whenever he shifted from defending against the ninja's projectiles and the samurai's swings from his sword and sheathe.

A fraction of a fraction of a second. It was a small window, but the Tsui Gami also used a small window of reverberation to strike the same point three times fast. It was in Yahiko's bag.

Confident he was landing his sharp counters and ripostes at will at this point, Fabian went ham and stopped hesitating.

He indulged in continuous counterattacks without fear of any traps or counter times from Yahiko while having that vulnerability in his mind. Determined to do a parry and riposte if that happened.

A shuriken flew from overhead instead of straight-on to La Cerca's head, which he deflected by reflex. For that split-second, his timing was predictable. Yahiko thusly attacked.

However, expecting this, The Faceless feinted a counter (Feint in Time), only to get smacked in the head with a simple attack. His knees buckling slightly, he sidestepped a follow-through and did a riposte.

He knew Yahiko's pattern by heart now, errant attacks that slipped through aside.

However, his every riposte and counter got blocked and parried themselves with the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu succession technique, the Hadome (Sword Halt) and Hawatari (Sword Crossing).

Myojin couldn't time him while he was waiting for a counterattack, so he baited him with a predictable pattern while spring-loading his own counter time.

It took his shuffling feet and upper-body movement to get out of range of Yahiko's counters and ripostes, with him figuring out that the kid had timed him by baiting him and drawing out his counters.

Thusly, he paused and waited to see if it was bait or a real attack.

Kaita attacked again at that moment, triggering La Cerca's reflex. At the same time, Yahiko attacked again.

On this toss-up, he predicted another bait-and-switch from Yahiko and got a face-full of sakabatou for his trouble.

He then defended again with his footwork and mindless stab to keep the kid off of him, only for his dagger to get stuck inside the samurai's waiting sheathe.

Yahiko pulled the fencer towards him within his range and then wrenched out the dagger from his hands.

Meanwhile, La Cerca himself smiled behind his cracked mask. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this excited to complete a mission. Who was this Yahiko Myojin character anyway?

If it were up to him, he would've devised a proper plan to take him out, just like with Kinta Minakata. The boy proved himself a formidable foe in his own right.

The fencer dodged, slipped, parried, riposted, and countered Yahiko's strikes even at close range, bewildering him.

Then everything went dark, his mask shattering from a concussive Tsui Gami to the side of his temple. Perhaps his skull might've cracked as well.

He fell in a boneless heap at the scratched-up and bleeding Yahiko's feet, his vision swimming as if underwater.

What just happened?

***

To Be Continued...

The dialog between Yahiko and The Faceless is based on the banter between Captain Esteban Pasquale (played by Basil Rathbone) and Diego Vega/Zorro (played by Tyrone Power) during their duel in the movie "The Mark of Zorro (1940)".

Also, naturally, all this shadow talk is based on Tetsuya Kuroko. In my mind, I've transformed the original Kaita from the Rurouni Kenshin Black Knight filler arc into a Kuroko-like ninja.

Danke, Abdiel

[autistichwsamerica]

To add on to the reason why him being canonically mixed is actually like A Big Thing:

I cant remember if It was stated in the anime but in his character bio he is ALWAYS stated to be part Arabic. So a good part of him is Mideastern, not to mention hes closest to (northern) Africa and probably shares some ancestry from there too (at least from a historical standpoint). He also has a darker complexion which unfortunately gets whitewashed a lot especially by Studio Dean (same people that made Seychelles white).

Because of these things I think he gets shoved a lot into that "violent moc" stereotype even in canon but almost 99% of the time by the fandom.

As an American I cant speak a lot about this from a personal note but I know that from a historical standpoint and what actually southern Italians have said is that people from S. Italy tend to get discriminate against by northern Italians. Also Im pretty sure Italians werent considered "white" until like the 1950s (at least here in America).

Theres also that weird racist thing where people in this fandom are OBSESSED with the M*fia. Like dont even get me started on how racist that actually is. Than again this is the same fandom that likes to romanticize WW2 and nazisim occassionally so..

Also people on tumblr just hate/mock italians in general for some reason and that just confuses me so much like ???

This man is also like...super fucking poor too, so add some classism to it as well while we're (I'm) at it lol. He's also an immigrant in multiple ways and multiple times throughout history so theres some xenophobia to boot

please direct any and all future hate anons over to @rosethreeart please and thank you. :)

Sorry this man gets so much hate for no reason and it makes me sad hes such a sad little meow meow who deserves to be held gently </3

Yeah, it's literally stated in the manga that Romano is mixed. I know a lot of the fandom doesn't read the manga, but they really, really should. (Also, didn't Studio Deen whitewash Egypt as well, or am I misremembering?)

While Romano has legitimate reasons to have a temper, it shouldn't be overlooked that he does something get boxed into the "angry moc" trope. But yeah, it's way worse in the fandom.

Yeah, I've heard southern Italians say that, too. And the 1950s lines up with what I've read.

God, I've noticed that too. Like, what is this fandom's obsession with the m*fia. And it's always so glamorized? But yeah, given some of the other stuff this fandom glamorizes, maybe I shouldn't be too surprised.

Yeah, I've noticed that. It's not racism since Italians have been considered white since the 1950s, but anti-Italian sentiment is still not...good.

Exactly! Classism factors into the fandom's treatment of Romano, as does being anti-immigrant/xenophobic.

I'll keep that in mind, thank you!

And yes, Romano deserves so much better from this fandom.

[goldenlandfiascos]

young adult eva in the anime has a fucking popped collar i cannot believe

[darksaiyangoku]

Watching Fate/Stay Night and getting into the Fate Universe/Multiverse

The Fate series is... an interesting one. Now don't get me wrong, I love it and I've recently added into my favourite anime pile alongside RWBY, My Hero and Dragon Ball. However, the fandom has never made it easy for newcomers to get into. No one can agree on a good starting point and it just results in massive arguments.

Now it would be easy to say watch any Fate and you'll be fine. However, since the original visual novel came out, there have been countless spin offs and expansions that would almost certainly be confusing to newcomers. So in order to avoid this, I created a guide that should be easy to follow and gives some much needed context for you to dive right in.

First thing's first, what is Fate/Stay Night?

Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel created by Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi. It was developed and published by Type Moon and it released in 2004. The story follows 3 different paths (AKA, routes) that has Shirou Emiya, the protagonist, overcome the challenges of the Holy Grail War and become a hero of justice. Here are the 3 paths:

Fate (Shirou and Saber romance)

Unlimited Blade Works (Shirou and Rin romance)

Heaven's Feel (Shirou and Sakura romance)

Now that you have that context, what about the anime? Here's a watch order that you can follow and avoid the screaming fans while doing so:

Fate/Stay Night by Studio DEEN

Everyone looks down upon this adaptation because it does an, admittedly, poor job of adapting the first route of the series (Fate). However, it lays the necessary groundwork of what Fate is and how things work in the universe. Plus, it's currently the only way to watch Saber/Artoria's route and the problems don't actually start manifesting themselves until the second half.

Fate/Zero by ufotable

Fate/Zero is a prequel that tells the story of the previous Holy Grail War and can be viewed after DEEN's Fate to explain how things led up to that event.

Alternatively, you can watch this before DEEN's Fate as it serves as a good introduction to the world and its magic system. Some would argue against this as there are some "spoilers" (I use that term loosely) thrown in. That's not true. They aren't spoilers, they're hints at what's to come for each of the routes. Since this is a prequel, it can be viewed before any of the 3 anime.

Now some would argue that this route spoils the surprise of Saber's true identity, that of the legendary King Arthur. However, given how 10 years has passed since the release of Zero in 2011, Saber being Arthur is pretty common knowledge at this point the same way that people already know that Anakin is Darth Vader.

Whether you want to watch this before or after is completely up to you. It's not as damaging to the experience as fans make it out to be.

Fate/Unlimited Blade Works by ufotbale

Unlimited Blade Works is a solid follow up to Fate and this is where you really start to see the differences shine. Certain characters get larger roles and it offers a cool twist on the formula already set up in DEEN's Fate..

Fate/Heaven's Feel by ufotable

Like with Unlimited Blade Works, Heaven's Feel shifts gears with the story and characters. Unlike the previous 2, however, the summoners (AKA masters) play a much larger and proactive role. I'd also warn that this route is incredibly dark and deals with some brutal subject matter.

There you have it, nothing complicated. Either start with DEEN's Fate anime or ufotable's Zero anime. After that, check out Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel. Nothing worth stressing over.

[canmom]

Animation Night 60: FATE

Or to be precise: Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel!

It’s Animation Night no. 60, a big old milestone! Six tens and you’re all still lining up for me to pour anime into your eyeballs. Wild.

So what’s the plan? Tonight, we’ll be watching some of the biggest anime film series in recent years: the Ufotable adaptation of the Heaven’s Feel route of the eroge visual novel Fate/Stay Night as a trilogy of anime films.

No, come back! I promise it’s good!

So. Fate, and the broader ‘nasuverse’ such as Tsukihime, is a sprawling franchise, replete with word salad titles like Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya. Where do you begin? I suspect if you’ve heard anything about it it’s 1. king arthur is a girl lol and 2. “people die when they are killed”. Or maybe you know a weeb who’s obsessed with the Fate gacha game. Perhaps you’ve heard about ‘most famous anime trap’ Astolfo (who’s from the gacha game). But like... what actually is it?

To give the basic pitch, the Fate series depicts ruthless wizards summoning instances of historical and mythological figures in a ritualised fight for the Holy Grail, a nigh-omnipotent wish-granting magic artefact. The main character, Shirou Emiya, is (get this...) a high-school boy (no way) who finds himself unexpectedly drawn into the wizard battle after he accidentally summons a powerful Servant called Saber - ‘King’ Arthur, who is in this universe, was actually a girl.

From there... things get very complicated, but in short the wizards enact various complicated schemes to kill each other and their servants, we learn more about the conspiracies afoot in every direction, alliances are made and formed, and eventually after the cast thins out, we find out about the horrible secrets of the Grail.

The original Fate/Stay Night was an eroge visual novel by the pseudonymous author Kinoku Nasu, co-founder of Type Moon - a doujin circle turned full-fledged studio. This is to say, the sprawling storyline full of intricately cross-referenced lore, wide-ranging mythological allusions, and elaborate magic systems was initially ‘just’ a porn game.

Whether the eroge succeeds as a work of erotica, I can’t say, since I’ve encountered it exclusively in adaptations... but the general sense I’ve receved from people who have read it is ‘not at all’ and a general sense of feeling sorry for people who might have bought on that basis. But Fate became wildly popular all the same, even more so than Nasu’s previous novel Tsukihime... enough to launch a massive media franchise, especially when it became a gacha game. But more on that later.

As with most VNs, it’s a game with multiple routes: Shirou can get with one of three characters, and each one takes him to a different ending...

in the ‘Fate’ route, it’s Saber herself. they have to fuck for magic reasons or something.

in the ‘Unlimited Blade Works’ route, it’s wizard girl Rin Tohsaka, who is from an old and evil wizard family but herself one of the more well-adjusted characters

in the ‘Heaven’s Feel’ route, it’s a different wizard girl, Sakura Matou, whose magical abilities are augmented by the efforts of her abusive wizard dad’s nasty worm rituals

The eroge was given a light novel prequel, Fate/Zero, written by Gen Urobuchi of Madoka fame. This focuses on a character who would eventually become to be Shirou’s adoptive dad, the cunning utilitarian Kiritsugu Emiya, in a previous round of the Grail War. I’ll talk more about that in a minute.

Got all that? ...yeah that’s just a blizzard of names isn’t it. Don’t worry, the film will introduce it more gently! Let’s talk about anime...

The first brave souls to attempt turning Nasu’s massive novel into animation were Studio Deen. They took on a version of the story consisting primarily of the ‘Fate’ route, but with elements borrowed from the others. Unfortunately, their version was... not a huge success, remembered mostly for janky lines like the above and poor animation. I haven’t seen it, but I’m told it’s the most insufferable depiction of Shirou, and generally even extreme fans of the franchise (such as this guy) seem to suggest giving it a miss.

The second attempt came at the hands of the renowned studio Ufotable, who first took on adapting Fate/Zero in 2011-12; their interpretation proved a hit, and they followed it up in short order with an adaptation of the Unlimited Blade Works route; this pair is so far my entire exposure to the franchise, and they form a pretty good story in their own right.

Ufotable is now just over 20, and kVin (of course, who else?) has a detailed retrospective on the studio’s life here. Founded as a small studio in 2000 by Hikaru Kondo and a group of experienced anime industry workers in several departments, it grew around a vision of a studio prizing cross-discipline work:

his dream was a studio where creators could gather around a table and, regardless of their standing and specialty, have a say in a very diverse array of activities—“the more you do, the more likely you are to do something well” being his amusing motto

Kondo is elsewhere described as an outright ideologue, and he has a little of a chequered reputation now after he got done for tax evasion; but for better or worse he’s the personality most defining this studio. His first engagement with Nasu’s work was an extremely ambitious seven-film adaptation with The Garden of Sinners; with Fate/Zero they settled down into a pattern of lavishly adapting high-profile works, with Fate being one of the biggest. With Ufotable (when a project goes well) you can expect the flashiest compositing tricks, rigorous and expressive key animation, and all kinds of striking shots and setpieces...

So that brings us to tonight’s movie trilogy, Heaven’s Feel! These movies took on the last route of the VN, and with the time and budget of a film production, they can push that fancy animation even further. You can read about some of the names involved here (where would I be without you kVin?) for the first film...

As noted above, this is Sakura’s route; one in which Saber gets possessed by evil powers so the main Servant character is ‘Rider’, i.e. the life-draining witch Medusa... and thus, the one where we finally get a confrontation with Kotomine, the sinister priest who runs the Grail War. In the meantime: lots of character drama and astonishingly choreographed and effects-rich fight scenes key animated by people like Nozumu Abe and Hironori Tanaka.

But also, well. Focusing on a character like Sakura takes the story to some pretty dark places, and I’ve been advised the second movie especially involves some ecchi moments - by which I mean, iirc, lavishly animated bodily fluids and a lot of stuff involving worms - that might be rather uncomfortable! So I’m taking a bit of a risk showing this; I think if we could handle Made in Abyss we can probably handle this, but I’m definitely not going to throw us in without a bit of warning.

I’ve gone to the trouble of pulling down the fansubber recommended 34GB encode of these movies which took several hours... you can witness a fierce debate in the comments section here about the best ways to filter grain and whether honorifics make these ‘cancer subs’, as is typical of nyaa, but passion begets commitment to really fancy subtitling I guess. Of course I’m then going to absolutely murder this beautiful encode by cramming it through real time Twitch! I’m terribly sorry.

Anyway, I’m already over time with this writeup; we will have to save any sort of in depth thematic analysis of the Fate series for some other post. (Probably not written by me.) What I am pretty sure I can promise is that these movies should represent a kind of spectacle of all that is possible in the current era of anime, the era of the webgen and the digital composite... in every affective direction. Let’s take the plunge together! (Nasuverse nerds, this is your time to shine. Make sure we understand what we’re missing out on by jumping in at totally the wrong place!)

Animation Night 60 is starting... right now! Head to twitch.tv/canmom, I’ll be up in just a second.

[shiobookmark]

The Hakuouki anime gave me a headache with how amazingly terrible it was.  How do you manage to keep the pacing and tension this flat Problem is I watched the show to see if I’d like the VN But given it’s Studio Deen aka the ones responsible for Fate? I have no idea??? Is the anime indicative of the visual novel quality at all? SHORT list of anime issues: - No character development, I could barely tell the men apart. Didn’t know a thing about them that wasn’t present in other anime versions of themselves (like Saito Hajime and Okita Souji both showing up in Rurouken and therefore I know Okita has TB and is pretty and that Saito survives to be a cop.) - No plot. 90% of the show is explaining which historical event just happened offscreen because the shinsengumi were a militia and therefore not really involved in the politics, just moved around to different battlefields - Seriously the entire show is talking about things happening that didn’t involve the characters. - No introspection or explanation about character motivation until the last five episodes. I’d care more about Kondou and Hijikata if I’d known their goals, dreams, flaws and relationship prior to it all going down the drain

- No explanation of the oni and rasetsu beyond that they exist.

My guess is it’s just a very poor adaptation that skips over all the character development in favour of following the literal plot but uh, are any of the points above addressed? I’m losing my mind over how many pieces seem to be missing here

[okamithehunter]

“Cicadas are Screaming” Higurashi Halloween Piece.

SPEEDPAINT - https://youtu.be/-8dt7Koy6LM

I watched part of the original Higurashi in middle school and am rewatching and finishing it, and am LOVING it. The new season is pretty good too! Also sorry for the background being kinda poor compared to Keiichi, I needed to get this video out today and also had no clue how to attempt this background so I kinda just mimicked the Studio Deen background style. I really like the first arc of the original (yes I downloaded the first chapter on steam yes i wanna make a video on it).

[cantillat-moved]

@more-than-a-princess​ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (Not just hot tea, but scorching hot tea)

Sᴇɴᴅ ᴍᴇ ᴀ “ 🔥 “ ғᴏʀ ᴀɴ ᴜɴᴘᴏᴘᴜʟᴀʀ ᴏᴘɪɴɪᴏɴ.

Alright, DR tea for my DR accomplice

I wished that KuzuPeko was slightly “healthier”. Peko wasn’t raised as a person, but rather indoctrinated into devoting herself to Fuyuhiko. While I do believe that not all ships need to be wholesome, and some conflict and certain aspects can lead to some interesting development, Peko was groomed into liking him. It wasn’t Fuyuhiko’s fault, I’m going to make it clear: it was the Kuzuryu gang. And the fact that they both became despairs probably made the situation far worse. I would love to see a future development in which Fuyuhiko assists Peko in finding her humanity, learning how to be a person and either finding someone to truly love and see him as a brother or someone dear to him, or to have a genuine feeling.

Once again I’m going to defend the “77b were brainwashed” thing. It wasn’t something that the anime pulled out of nowhere – the Danganronpa 3 anime has TONS of issues, mostly because it was rushed and it was going to originally be a DR2 adaptation and somehow they decided to make two different animes with the budget and the runtime of one, of course it was a mess. But the brainwashing was an important plot point in the novel Danganronpa Zero, written by Kodaka himself. It was also stated during the last trial in Danganronpa 2 and a central point of Ultra Despair Girls – that, by the way, DRAE and DR2 were developed in tandem. Junko certainly had access to the brainwashing techniques thanks to Yasuke Matsuda, her BOYFRIEND and childhood friend – Mitarai was only a means to an end, they could even had have implemented it without him in the story. I believe that if they had more time or gone in with the idea of making a prequel+sequel from the get go things could have gone more smoothly. Oh, and maybe some studio other than LERCHE could have done a slightly better job. (at least it wasn’t DEEN)

Sonia isn’t an accessory for Gundham OR Hajime. And she isn’t “soft uwu” either. Despite being feminine and soft spoken, the game mentions on passing (and won’t make much of a fuss) that she isn’t some naïve girl, but already had sex, experienced alcoholic drinks and dabbed into politics, as expected of her position. Moreover she had full military training and can drive a tank! She can pretty much kick everyone’s ass, wearing high wheels and looking PRETTY while at it. She isn’t some damsel in distress, she can be the damsel who CAUSES distress. And people need to learn: it isn’t because a girl is being nice to you that she wants to get into your pants.

Oh god, the US translation ruined Tenko and the fandom ran with it. In the original Japanese version, it isn’t like that Tenko is a raging misandrist – but the translation cranked it up to eleven. She was always polite to Saihara, never threatened or mentioned outright physical violence towards him. She wasn’t the only one who suffered from a poor translation, both Ouma, Angie and Gonta also had horrid translations that butchered their characters, but Tenko had it really bad that also stimulated an unhealthy fandom culture. It is really a shame in my opinion: we had an interesting character with Sakura, and having another girl being a martial artist in a slightly different take could have been a great opportunity to explore the philosophy and discipline of martial arts and the respect for all people… But we can’t have nice things. I’m not hating on Tenko, I blame NIS for making a piss poor job, and they already did a questionable job with DR2, but this time they outdid themselves in the shit department.

I also have strong feelings about Danganronpa V3 in general. The first chapter was very strong and well-written, but it soon loses its energy and spirals into spitting the fandom in general. We had an interesting build up, with many characters that were hit or miss, but it sounds like that they were “forced” to follow the exact mold of the previous games and then decided to make that meta joke in the end…Maybe it was because the Persona 5 lore shenanigan plot twist was still fresh in my mind and was handled in a very nice way, but I felt slapped in the face. Somebody mentioned that you were supposed to read the interviews and some meta before playing, but I don’t think it works for me: a narrative, either in a game or a movie (I’m looking at you, KK’s Star Wars trilogy), must be self-contained and all the important info pertaining in the story must be told in universe and not by ‘word of god’ or meta commentary. It was a good idea, but I believe it could have been handled better. I don’t know if there was some executive meddling, something that changed along the way, something that didn’t land or if it is just me. All the games and spin-offs have strong and weak aspects, and because I like the franchise I think it is important to recognize that. I liked the bait-switch protagonist concept, the idea of someone going back into the Killing Game and being brainwashed again in order to end it all, having the characters question if maybe it is REALLY a good idea….Then congratulations! You have been watching Big Brother and fandom takes itself too seriously!!! PSYCHE!!!! LOOOOOOLZ!!!!!!!  

[kuronokiseki]

Best Misaki Moments (imo)

will do an usage and romantica version next

warning: very long post, lots and lotssss of large images

the moment where misaki became my fave character

misaki found him hawt in a suit ovo

vol 1 misaki is best misaki tbh nakamura what have you done

hahahahahahahaaaaa

nobody badmouths hubby! >:(

the scene that made 13 year old me shook and cry ;-;

BABY CRY ME CRY TOO :”(

misaki when hubby said it’s his first time going for a trip with someone for fun mann can i include the whole train chapter it’s sooo good

misaki’s subconscious hahahaha

OwO

misaki just spent a whole chapter thinking how to reward his hubby and his final decision was this

THEREFORE I SHALL OFFER MAH BODY

you tell him misaki! >:D

many ppl wanted misaki to top for once after this scene but me? POWER BOTTOM MISAKI

U NO TOUCH MAH MAN HES MINE #OAO

notice meeee :”(

usagi-san did nothing wrong I WANT TO STAY WITH HIM! DD:< (i noticed alot of ppl wished misaki would reject ijuuin in this fashion back then)

i love how nakamura ended this arc on a perfect note :”““)

usage: ive known takahiro for 15 years

misaki: AM I A JOKE TO YOU?! >:U

I HATE FUYUHIKO >:”“““(

the reason why misaki chose usage over haru :”“(

y no one loves me like misaki loves hubby :”“““““““(

misaki saved hubby!!! (a rare scene where the anime did it better, but welll hardly the anime did the manga justice)

giving someone chocolate during valentine’s day? yeahhh, totally doesnt mean anything :^)

if someone’s going to say misaki is a bad character im gonna stab them

i realized there is not a single fave moment in the mizuki arc even tho i didnt skip it while rereading (aka the WORST arc and the WORST COUPLE tbh the cousins are soooo annoying EVEN IN THE LATEST ACT 51 and everytime they appeared im having a second-hand embarrassment) finally a fave moment came right after they left nakamura istg if they are going to appear again in the future i hope their plane will crash

(i acknowledge this scene as the beginning of ijuuin arc and nothing have to do with mizuki arc)

annnnnnd misaki will repeat himself for many times regarding who he truly loves but guess who’s going to listen to him in-universe and in fandom

if nobody wants to listen then you say it with your body then b^w^b (it’s not a question abt who misaki loves anymore. it’s abt who’s misaki gonna BANG)

MISAKI’S DOMINATING ...not

(but nakamura pls fulfill misaki’s wish someday poor him)

misaki decided to thank usage by offering his body to the perv bunny

dont you think you can steal hubby away while misaki sleeps

usagi-san is S P E C I A L

:”0

hubby not jealous. misaki triggered D:<<<

MISAKI IS PRECIOUS BABY

when s3 was airing i was looking forward for this scene the most. i was confident that sakurai will deliver this scene perfectly... URGHH STUDIO DEEN I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR DOING MISAKI DIRTY

best kiss scene eva lol i love their banters xD

misaki being sweet

misaki pampering the hubby

misaki in this arc: rejected ijuuin many times, making love with usagi 24/7, fanboyed over ijuuin only for the goodies, made love with usagi, came to ijuuin’s house only bcs of work, and did i mention making love with usagi

some ppl: OMG MISAKI LOVES SENSEI MORE THAN USAGI!!!! D:<

i still remember how legendary this chapter is. too bad the anime failed to convey the feels just like in the manga

say what you want abt junjou but this is top notch writing

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

when ur landlord is brought up and the first thing you do is ask abt a couple struggling to stay together yeaaaahhh totally not suspicious misaki

bish what u say abt mah man hes mine >:(

prepare for me screaming in 3... 2... 1... AAAAAHHHHHHHH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

serious from this point 95% of misaki’s pov will consist of him angsting abt getting apart from his hubby in every chapter onward

misaki rejecting ijuuin for the 9749294694214692746829487th time

misaki hugs back :”O

tucking the hubby he cold :”““(

yea, totally not obvious ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

i love how blatantly in love misaki is with usage and everyone can see it. even ijuuin himself noticed

baby doesnt want to lose hubby :”“““( baby is scared

S H O O K

if you dont find this heartwarming you’re heartless

smart way to make him not spend more money ^v^

D”“““““““““““““““: me ded again

misaki being a badass >:D from someone denying his feelings for akihiko in the beginning to straight up telling the parents he’s going to stay with hubby that’s some awesome character growth bravo bravo

that’s some determined shonen mc resolution OvO

aanddd finally...

AND IIIIIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOOOOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU -

[plounce]

rob i Need to hear ur fai opinions! also can i have some watanuki thoughts. 😷😷

a kate you know me so well

FAI:

Sexuality Headcanon: gay. gay little thing.

Gender Headcanon: nonbinary gay person! he likes to present femininely. he and sakura have a mother-daughter dynamic. genderful

A ship I have with said character: kurofai FOREVER!!!!!!!! ive written thousands upon thousands of words of meta about them but they drive me bonkers fucking yonkers. the inextricable, intertwined character arcs... the perfect foils... the way that they SAVE EACH OTHER from their trauma... they are so good. wish clamp depicted them being tender but (sigh) whatever

A BROTP I have with said character: he and sakura have the most wonderful dynamic... he nurtures her. i wish clamp would stop focusing on c!syaoran so much and acknowledge that the last time fai saw c!sakura, he was forced to impale her with a big fucking sword. fucked up + traumatizing! regardless - the panels i have saved of them cooking together in outo sit warmly in my heart.

A NOTP I have with said character: fai/chii is so funnily terrible. clamp’s epic clapback against studio deen by making her a copy of his mom....... lmfao. also faisaku is the most vile possible thing on earth followed shortly by faisyao

A random headcanon: i think in a modern au fai would have to deal with a lot of internalized homophobia/transphobia along with all the trauma that comes with being fai... fai has very restricting ideas of how he should interact/bond with others even as those ideas go against his actual nature. ugh fai you are simply the saddest

General Opinion over said character: my favorite character ever!!! i love love love him, have since i was 13. he’s so special and important to me. i’m so glad he got a happy ending with his husband.

WATANUKI:

Sexuality Headcanon: he’s bi, but leans a lot more towards men than he thinks. his crush on himawari was about 75% because he expected himself to feel that way - performance. he REALLY suppresses his feelings towards doumeki. maybe this is my hc bc im a lesbian, who can say..........

Gender Headcanon: boy. could be a trans boy, but mostly i just picture several dudes i know in high school.

A ship I have with said character: douwata................. the ship for cucks. like me and like doumeki. their bond is so compelling and it just grabs your attention. how they share eyes!! and doumeki’s quiet steadiness... their melancholy, bittersweet domesticity in rou is also so moody and interesting. poor kids. i also like douwatahima on occasion! it’s sweet.

A BROTP I have with said character: ah yuuko... now that is a very weird mother complex. but their dynamic is the heart of holic and her strange mysterious nurturing and support of watanuki is like... i feel like she wanted to give him so much more help but her Situations forbade her from it. i do think she fucked him up in certain ways but she tried her best, and a lot of it was out of her hands.

A NOTP I have with said character: stanning watahima is what you get if you don’t think critically about the text whatsoever.

A random headcanon: despite how the text identifies him with cats, he actually prefers dogs - they’re easier to read.

General Opinion over said character: you can’t help but be fond of him. half of me doesn’t mind his super melancholy ending, i think it’s interesting. i thought the stuff about his cooking being a metaphor for him was soooo cool - how he can’t taste it as he loses his sense of self, but how doumeki has always loved eating it... AGHHH watanuki! i love the themes about being selfish being a good thing bc you have to value yourself very interesting.

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 53: A Trip Down Memory Lane

An old flame of Yahiko returns to Yokohama.

The rest of the chapters of my Rurouni Kenshin fan fiction are available here. Enjoy.

First | Previous | Next

Back at Yokohama during Winter 1884...

A week had passed since the fateful sparring match between Satsuki "May" Brooks and Yahiko "Joshua" Myojin.

However, the clash between Satsuki and Yahiko quickly became old hat for the kenjutsu students of the Sakaguchi Dojo.

Why?

It was because Satsuki's adoptive grandfather and grandmaster of the Musou Madden School, Genzo Sakaguchi, insisted that Yahiko return and regularly spar with her and the rest of the students in the dojo to prepare them for, well, war.

A war against foreign invaders, apparently.

The so-called Brigands Guild was out to assassinate the members of the Minakata Family, the hatamoto class samurai family whom generations of Sakaguchis served under since the Sengoku Era.

In any case, Mr. Myojin had ended up being a sparring partner for Miss Brooks in the end.

They sparred with each other until everyone got sick of it, including them. Then they sparred some more.

They kept sparring until every following match lost all meaning to them. Like they were being punished through the endless battles.

This was all part of Genzo's Training from Hell: His students' collective punishment for performing poorly against both Yahiko and May.

This went on for several more days until the fateful confrontation between uncle and nephew at the House of Minakata.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Old friends meet up with new friends.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 53: A Trip Down Memory Lane

***

'Boy, there sure are a lot of foreigners in Yokohama.'

Those were actually one of the first couple of thoughts in Yahiko's mind when their train to Yokohama from Hiroshima first arrived.

Was he not distracted by the prospect of sparring with Satsuki, he would've focused more on that train of thought. However, even the eventual sparring match reinforced his first impressions on Yokohama.

After all, "Satsuki" was actually May Brooks, an Englishwoman adopted into a Japanese family.

A foreigner.

Damn, there sure were a lot of gaijin in Yokohama. It was crawling with them, in fact. Like an anthill. Or a beehive.

Or rather, weren't they more like a swarm of murderous wasps invading a beehive that they obviously didn't belong to?

Maybe that was a bit much of a comparison. However, that was what the Satsuma Domain felt was happening when the Americans first opened up Japan's ports to world trade.

Like they were being invaded by another country.

Yokohama was the place where it all began, from the Convention of Kanagawa to the Bakumatsu. It literally helped end the Sakoku (Locked Nation) Era of Japan, even.

It was all because an arrogant American foreigner embarrassed the Shogunate by forcing it to open Japanese ports for foreign trade.

It was reminiscent of what the British did to Imperial China with its Opium Wars for the sake of getting tea and other goods from the country.

The consequences of their actions could be felt even to this day, in 1884.

Like Yokohoma ending up like a center for world trade full of foreigners. Or Emperor Meiji being installed into power by the Ishin Shishi winning the Bakumatsu and establishing of the Meiji Government.

Regardless, the boy from Tokyo had ended up with a new routine ever since he lost that damn spar in Yokohama.

He attended "classes" at the Sakaguchi Dojo and served as one of its teacher's sparring partners almost daily, including weekends.

On the bright side, he got paid cold, hard cash for his efforts to train. He had that going for him, which was nice.

He was actually there to help Old Man Genzo Sakaguchi and Kinta Minakata along with a short list of volunteer students to help guard the Minakata Family while the Brigands Guild remained afoot.

The Great (Pain in the Ass) Gan also helped out in his own way. The meat shield served as a pretty impressive hand-to-hand combat sparring partner. His fighting style with the big metal bat didn't need as much polish or technique as his street fighting experience.

As long as Gan held actual job and pulled his own weight in terms of rent money, Yahiko was fine with whatever the lout wanted to do.

Even Munenori Minoe visited the dojo from time to time to help out with chores, clean the equipment, or do practice drills on defense.

However, he didn't do much there otherwise.

Yahiko expected more from him. He knew Minoe was capable of much more.

Like in Shinshu, it was hard to convince people that this meek guy with an eye patch and wig was actually a fearsome warrior and assassin in his own right.

Or her own right. Since Minoe was basically just Kaede Morinaga with a wig strapped to her head care of an eye patch.

But if Minoe thought he was a guy, who was Yahiko to tell him otherwise?

The thing was that Minoe barely went to the Sakaguchi Dojo ever since Yahiko's first spar with   Satsuki.

He was a martial artist himself who was probably even better than Myojin at kenjutsu but he chose not to help the Sakaguchis or Minakatas out.

In their other misadventures, Munenori was practically inseparable with the rest of the Three Stooges. Not this time, though.

'Was he avoiding going to the Sakaguchi Dojo because of Minakata Kinta?' Yahiko mused. 'What has he been up to this past week anyway?'

***

Dreading another blistering (and blister-inducing) sparring match with the master of long-range naginata/bo strikes for today, Yahiko found time to write more letters about his exploits addressed to his childhood sweetheart Tsubame Sanjo.

It came with the implication that she should also read the letters to Kenshin and Kaoru Kamiya as well, so they'd also know whatYahiko was up to.

It was his way of relaxing himself.

He sure hoped they were doing fine. Too bad they couldn't write him back in return, seeing how he had no permanent address at the moment.

Also, what would've been Kenshin's reaction to all these strange people using his former sobriquet "Battousai" long after he was retired from being a hitokiri (manslayer)? Everyone was pulling a Hiruma Brothers' style "prank" on him, it would seem.

'Maybe Amakusa Shogo called his band of misfit samurais the Battousaigumi (Battousai Group) partly as his way of challenging Kenshin. He's actually daring him to find them and stop them from abusing his name.'

Yahiko then thought of Tsubame and how she'd pack him lunches or wait for him to come home after every kendo practice, when she herself was done with her shift at the Akabeko (Red Cow) Restaurant.

He missed those idle days of his after all that nonsense with Jinchu and whatnot was finally laid to rest. There was something nostalgic about them, to be honest.

'Wha...?'

Speaking of nostalgia, he just saw a poster posted on the outside of the Yokohama Post Office. A poster for the circus.

It advertised clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, unicyclists, and more.

Huh. The circus, huh? He should pay a visit to the circus one of these days.  

Now that brought back memories.

Before he met Miss Sanjo, he was first smitten by a certain "Human Cannonball". A pretty girl about his age. Like Tsubame, she also had the annoying habit of calling him by the name...

"Yahiko-chan...?"

Staring back at him with a ream of posters tucked under her arm was the girl he was just thinking about.

A girl he hadn't seen in six years. A girl he thought he'd never see again in his lifetime.

"M-Marimo!?"

He felt like having a heart attack then and there.

"Oh, it is you, Yahiko-chan! I'm so glad you still remember me!" said Marimo.

What were the chances of them meeting like this?

Now if only Kenshin, Kaoru, Kenji, and/or Tsubame was right behind her too. Maybe even Sanosuke (Sagara/Higashidani), while they were at it!

Actually, Shinshu was further away than Yokohama was from the Kamiya Dojo. Since he was nearby, maybe he should drop in and visit his friends back in Tokyo instead!

***

Come to think of it, right at the very top of the same circus poster he'd been staring at was the very same "Human Cannonball" Marimo Ebisu, grinning while sitting atop a huge cannon.

'She's still going at it with the human cannonball gig, huh?' he thought. 'Some things never change.'

Marimo, a circus performer, was one of countless people the Kenshingumi (Kenshin Squad) met and helped out. Her job was to get shot out of a huge cannon that was aimed towards a target in an acrobatic fashion for the entertainment of paying customers.

Kenshin, Sano, Kaoru, and Yahiko saved the circus run by Marimo's ringmaster father Jirokichi Ebisu from a circus competitor named Soubei Sumidaya, a man whose own circus started failing after his star attraction, Marimo, left.

Sumidaya actually attempted to sabotage the Ebisu Circus by forcing them to immediately pay their loan to him they used to set up their own big top. According to their unfair contract, Marimo and her father would go back to his circus if they fail to settle their debts.

Afterwards, Soubei had his people steal the money that the Ebisu Family were intending to pay the loan with while at the same time injuring Marimo's father by getting him buried in a pile of wooden boards.

The evil circus ringleader then had some of his goons steal the gunpowder used to fire the Ebisu's cannon and then got the rest of his ex-convict performers to attack the Ebisu Circus in the middle of a performance for good measure.

The Kenshingumi not only filled in as Ebisu Circus performers themselves to stall for time; they also saved the day by taking out Sumidaya's gang in one fell swoop. Even Megumi Takani helped them out by mixing the right gunpowder portions needed for the cannon to work safely on top of tending to an injured Jirokichi.

"How are you? It's been ages!" Marimo asked Yahiko.

"I've been doing fine, all things considered," he replied. "I see you're still working at the circus."

"What can I say? I love my job." She giggled, brushing a stray lock of hair to the side of her face.

The circus was in town, and Marimo was one of its headliners in Yokohama.

At any rate, he and his second crush (Tsubame was his first) caught up with each other like old friends while he helped her put up those posters she carried to advertise her circus troupe's upcoming performance.

"How's everyone in Tokyo? Are they doing well? How are Kenshin-san, Sano-san, and Kaoru-san?"

"Well..."

He couldn't possibly recount everything that happened during Kenshin's stay with Kaoru in the Kamiya Dojo.

She didn't need to know about Jine Udo, Isurugi Raijuta, Makoto Shishio, or Yukishiro Enishi. No need to tell her about those serial murderers, anti-government rebels, and/or wannabe dictators.

He instead gave her the abridged version of what had happened so far. Even more abridged that the letters he sent Tsubame about his current exploits.

Marimo particularly loved the news that Kenshin and Kaoru were married with a child, Megumi was still practicing medicine in Aizu, and that Sanosuke Sagara had been adventuring all over the world, reaching as far as the United States of America.

Man, she was still so pretty. She really blossomed from being a cute girl to a heartbreaker in just six years.

Marimo Ebisu might not be as bombastic as May Brooks was, but she was still drop-dead gorgeous. Sometimes nothing could beat the adorable cuteness of youthful Japanese beauty.

She was like his nostalgia from when he was 10 years old personified. A muse from his past.

Marimo and Yahiko exchanged bows after their posting of all the posters was done. She then told him to come see her at the circus sometime by giving him a free ticket for today's show.

"Thanks for helping me out. See you later, Yahiko-chan!" she said as she waved goodbye.

"Uh, same to you, Marimo," he said lamely. The fact that she called him with the childish "-chan" honorific didn't even register in his mind.

Was he dreaming? Someone pinch him.

"OW! What's the big idea...?"

And so someone did. Right on the cheek.

He turned in time to see two of three Sanbaka (Three Stooges) and Chizuru Raikouji (the girl who pinched him) staring holes at him.

"That's what we'd like to know, 'Yahiko-chan'," said Chizuru, who looked at him with half-lidded eyes, a knowing smirk, and an upturned nose.

He also idly thought that maybe it'd be better if he "swapped" places with Chizuru so she'd be the one to complete the Sanbaka trio of idiots instead.

***

As they walked back to their respective inns, Yahiko's trio of companions grilled him for information even though he'd rather they went to a cookout grill instead. Like for yakiniku (grilled meat cuisine) or something.

"Was that your girlfriend from Tokyo we've heard so much about?" asked Minoe. "She's the one who calls you 'Yahiko-chan'. Right, Yahiko-chi?"

"Oh yeah, Sanjo no Kiwami or something," said the Moronic Gan.

"Sanju no Kiwami (Triple Extreme) is a punching technique, ya doofus! Her name is Sanjo Tsubame!" Yahiko said, not bothering to try and figure out how Gan coincidentally came up with Sanosuke Sagara's learned special technique.

"But this poster here says her name is Marimo the Human Cannonball," said Chizuru.

Uh-oh. Yahiko was the bigger moron after all. He gulped and sweated bullets. "Ummm..."

"Is that her stage name, Yoshi-boy?" asked the Idiotic Gan. "You didn't tell us your girlfriend is a circus performer! I thought she was a waitress in some maid cafe!"

Ah, what the hell. The jig is up. Might as well come clean.

"All right. Listen up. Marimo is not Tsubame. Tsubame is a different person, okay?"

"Oooooh," the Sanbaka (and Chizuru) chirped together in a sing-song way.

"Cut that out," he admonished his three "friends". "Marimo is... well, someone that I, we (the Kenshingumi) met at the circus. We helped her circus out when it was in trouble."

"Your ex?" supposed the Clueless Gan, which earned him a "MEN! (HEAD!)" strike to the noggin care of the wrapped-up sakabatou (reversed-edge blade).

"No, stupid! She's just a friend! A circus girl we saved from being harassed and duped into a bad contract by her former boss in Tokyo!"

"Oh, I get it. She was your first crush!" supposed Chizuru.

"N-No, she's not! She's my second... I mean, no. No! I met Tsubame before her, okay?"

"Ha. Bingo. Second crush, huh?" The Raikouji Heiress smiled like a cat that ate the canary. Her womanly intuition struck remarkably true like a pinprick to the center of Yahiko's heart. "No wonder you were ogling her with goo-goo eyes."

Tokyo Samurai Descendant winced, as though someone just punched him in the gut. "Raccoon Girl, stop it right there!"

Damn. The Kaoru look-alike was scarily perceptive. More so than the "real" Kaoru, even.

"No, that can't be it," said the bright-eyed (well, one-eyed) Minoe. "Mochiron! (But of course!) There's no way Yahiko-chi would ever cheat on his girlfriend in Tokyo with his other crush!"

"GUUUAAA!" exclaimed Myojin, who ended up on the ground, kneeling and on all fours in pain. Doing the dogeza or the Japanese kneeling position to prostrate oneself, especially if that someone were ashamed or embarrassed immensely in public.

"P-Please, Minoe. Have mercy."

***

A week ago, right after Yahiko lost his friendly sparring match against Satsuki...

Munenori Minoe and Kinta Minakata had a little private meeting at the backyard of the Sakaguchi Dojo.

"What are you doing here?" the straightforward Kinta asked. "Did Amakusa Shogo send you after me?"

Minoe chuckled. "This is actually a bit of a detour on my part, but I intended to keep an eye on you regardless. Same with Akahori-chi."

"Detour?" he repeated. "Oh. You're traveling with that kid, right? Why is that?"

Munenori rubbed his bandaged hands to keep them warm. "That 'kid' knows who the real Battousai is, Kinta-chi."

"Oh," he said, remembering how focused and obsessed Kaede was with meeting the original Hitokiri Battousai, to the point of dressing and even looking like him. "Really? That kid has connections with Himura Battousai?"

"Yes, he does. He even inherited his old sword."

"...I see."

Was this the reason why despite looking about the age of a teen, this samurai boy from Tokyo was able to take down grown men from their dojo and almost defeated one of their best students?

Was Yahiko Myojin taught kenjutsu by Kinta's incidental namesake all this time? 'But his sword style didn't look like Hiten Mitsurugu Ryu at all.'

"And as for you," said Minoe, who took off his wig and eye patch, revealing his rust-red hair and lazy eye with a cross-shaped scar near it. "Do you intend to betray Shogo-sama again, Traitor? Are you still working under Akahori Tetsuo?"

By reflex, Minakata's hand went immediately to the handle of his sword as he fell into the aggressive Waxing Stance of Musou Madden Ryu, ready to pull his Akatsuki (Red Moon) blade out of its sheathe at a moment's notice.

He wasn't talking to Minoe any longer, but instead to the much more dangerous and erratic Nisemono Battousai (Fake Battousai): Kaede Morinaga.

"Shozo Lorenzo. Genemon Gaspar. Lady Magdalia. Do any of these names mean anything to you, Traitor? You Judas!"

Incidentally, Judas Iscariot was one of the 12 apostles who ultimately betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver, leading to the Messiah's crucifixion and death.

"I remember all their names," Kinta said, his countenance unchanging. "I will never forget them."

So Kaede asked, "Whose side are you on then, Minakata Kinta? Shogo-sama's or Akahori's?"

***

Yahiko Myojin grumbled to himself. He ended up under the big top after all, attending Marimo's show in spite of himself. Against his better judgment.

He originally didn't intend to attend the circus performance that afternoon. He had hellish training and sparring to do at the Sakaguchi Dojo with May Brooks and her students, after all.

'Er, on second thought, they can take a rain check,' he mused. 'We can have a day or two without sparring, right?'

Regardless, some burly idiot with a drinking and gambling problem stole his ticket to the circus from under his nose and went there in his place instead.

Myojin was forced to actually wait in line and buy a ticket, if only to make sure the "Great" Gan wasn't up to his usual mischief of brawling, drinking, stealing, lying, and owing more food and gambling debts.

Man, Yahiko had half a mind to continue his journey without Gan and just dump the "Soba King" on the road or leave him like a stray cat at a park one of these days. He was nothing but trouble.

Then again, Gan also gave him the excuse to play hooky on the Sakaguchi Dojo for once and enjoy himself for at least a day after a week of torture and countless pole, shinai, or bokken strikes to his person.

The Ebisu Circus Troupe had blossomed and become a far bigger company than its owners dreamed possible in just six years.

The ringmaster Sumidaya would've rolled in his grave if he were dead (knock on wood). Right now he was serving his sentence in Tokyo Penitentiary, so it was possible for him to roll around his jail cell instead.

Instead of only offering one main star attraction in Marimo the Human Cannonball with half-hearted side attractions here and there, the Ebisu Circus had grown big enough to do tours on a national level.

"You actually came! I'm so glad!" cheered Marimo, who was in her form-fitting leotard cat suit as she met up with Yahiko at the entrance of the circus tent.

She waved off the cashier from selling Myojin a ticket, whispering that the boy was her guest.

"I can't wait for you to see me perform later!"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," he lied with a grin while scratching the back of his head, one eye on the lookout for any sign of the Unruly Gan.

"Dad, you remember Yahiko, right?" Marimo told her father after leading the boy in question to him.

"Ah, yes! The boy who saved our circus along with that nice swordsman fellow, doctor, kendo instructor, and street fighter!" said Jirokichi Ebisu, the ringmaster of the Ebisu Circus Troupe. "Has it been six years already? Time sure flies! I hope you enjoy the show, son! Tell Himura-san and company that Ebisu Jirokichi sends his regards!"

"Yeah, sure, and thanks a lot too!" Yahiko said, who even indulged enough to buy himself popcorn and a candy apple from the nearby concession stands of the big top. Might as well, since he was already there. "Oh, and it's Kamiya-san now. Kenshin married into Kaoru's family."

"Is that right? Congratulations to them, then! I always had an inkling suspicion they'd end up together."

"Would you believe they even have a kid too?" gabbed Yahiko between mouthfuls of popcorn.

"Ha! Himura-san, you sly dog! I mean, Kamiya-san, right? Way to go. That girl is quite a catch. I hope in the future that Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya will get to see how much our humble show has improved through the years!"

"I'll tell them all about it!" said Myojin.

Jirokichi then turned towards his star attraction and said to Yahiko, "If Marimo is lucky, then maybe she could get the same happy ending herself!" while giving her a wink.

"Shut up, Dad!" Marimo fidgeted cutely in her skintight uniform that left little to the imagination. "You're embarrassing me in front of Yahiko-chan!"

"Bwahahaha! Puppy love is so adorable!"

Yahiko laughed along with Jirokichi but his pretend mirth didn't quite reach his eyes. 'She's still going with the 'chan' thing, huh? I guess Marimo will never see me as anything other than that 10-year-old brat she met six years ago.'

He spared a glance at the young girl and her hour-glass form in that tight-fitting outfit before their eyes met and they looked away in embarrassment.

'Also, 'puppy love'? What puppy love? Does Marimo have a boyfriend already or something?'

"Well, we better get going! Marimo, go to your trailer and prepare yourself. Son, enjoy the show! It's about to start!" said the Ebisu Ringmaster.

"Don't mind if I do!" said Yahiko, who then took a large bite of his candied apple.

***

The show went off without a hitch.

It certainly helped that no competing circus ringmaster and his failed circus performers were trying to sabotage their performances this time around.

Ebisu Circus, which was founded in 1878, performed in four to five locations around Japan each year, setting up its bright-red, 20-meter-high big top in each place for roughly three months.

The circus also had shows twice a day, morning and night, up until the end of the month.

This year, in 1884, the troupe opened in Osaka before moving to Nagoya and then Yokohama, intending to perform in Fukuoka before the year was over. According to Jirokichi, they might add Asakusa or Takamatsu if the shows proved successful enough.

This time around, they had everything going for them. Lion tamers and other animal trainers. A zoo full of trained animals. Circus clowns. Magicians and other illusionists. Escape artists able to free themselves from the Chinese water torture box or while hanging upside down like a bat.

There were also jugglers, acrobats, dancers, and death-defying trapeze artists present, among whom included their headliner Marimo Ebisu.

At present, Ebisu Circus had around 50 to 60 performers, among 20 were from overseas. The ringmaster said he scoured the globe to find the best performers as his circus grew in popularity, although it did help that international ports like Yokohama allowed them an influx of foreign talent to hire.

No wonder the lines and crowds Ebisu Circus had currently gathered were even longer and bigger than the ones the Kenshingumi came across when the troupe had first formed. They'd really expanded their show into a world-class extravaganza.

If only Kenshin and the others could witness the spectacular program. It was well-worth the price of admission (had Yahiko paid)!

'Man, I do hope they add Tokyo to their tour dates. This is amazing,' thought Yahiko.

Before the main event with their headliner—Marimo the Human Cannonball—finally started, they held a short tournament of sorts to showcase the skills of their strongman weightlifters, bodybuilders, and wrestlers, many of whom were trained in classic Japanese jujutsu, judo, and sumo as well as Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling from the western world.

Yahiko yawned.

As popular as the wrestling portion of the show was to the kids, he was too old and too experienced in martial arts to not recognize the stage tricks and fake fighting that the strongmen did to each other when doing their little pretend tournaments.

Some of it was impressive, but it wasn't real fighting. More like a dance made to look like a real competitive match.

At the tail end of the wrestling show, they held a contest where the audience members were invited to participate to see if they could take on the circus strongmen in a match.

At least when they were fighting against audience members, some of the more experienced wrestlers had the chance to showcase their actual skills instead of doing fixed choreographed fights for a crowd, but those lasted in mere seconds.

As extra incentive, they offered cash prizes to anyone who could defeat the circus's stable of strongmen.

"BWAHAHAHA! I am the Soba King! The Great Gan! Beware my wrath, puny mortals!"

Wait a minute. That voice. Yahiko knew something was amiss!

Right there, on the ring down below, came forth the Rambunctious Gan in all his bandanna-wearing, barrel-chested glory, beating on his pectorals like one of the damn trained gorillas the circus had caged.

Yahiko had almost forgotten himself. This was the reason why he went to the circus in the first place! To chase after Gan the Ticket Thief and keep him out of trouble!

***

The audience ooh-ed and aah-ed at the spectacle before them.

As far as the audience knew, this unknown Japanese "strongman" thug that wasn't part of the previous shows took down the circus's own strongmen one after the other with karate kicks, punches, elbows, knees, throws, and body slams.

Yahiko tried to go back to the entrance to retrieve the sakabatou he left behind (no weapons were allowed inside the big top for obvious reasons), but it was a packed house and he was soon distracted by the Muscular Gan making short work of the long line of strongmen, wrestlers, bodybuilders, and martial artists one after another, sometimes two or three at a time.

It was a royal ass-whuppin'. A rumble where the Monstrous Gan came out on top. The Soba King of the Ring was seriously cleaning house.

No one who came down on that wrestling ring could get him out of it, it'd seem. Was this all pre-planned in advance? Was it part of the show? But why would a circus humiliate its own performers by "losing" to some random audience member?

'What is that idiot up to?' Yahiko thought. He himself could charge into the middle of the ring and try his luck with toppling Gan, but he had seen the strength and durability of the big oaf firsthand. He felt more confident taking him on with a sword instead of without it.

Yahiko then face-planted when he realized who was the girl—the valet—in the ring with Gan.

"Ohohohoho! That's right! Can no one take my," the girl in kabuki makeup cleared her throat and grimaced, "husband out? Are the wrestlers in this circus nothing but weaklings and clowns against the Monster Among Men, Gan the Great?"

"It's the Great Gan, Kaori-neechan! Get it right!"

"Shut up and mug at the audience, Soba King. I'm working here."

It was Chizuru. Even with her face completely plastered with white paint, Yahiko could recognize that face and that comically large hair bow anywhere. Or at least mistake her for Kaoru Kamiya. She was acting as manager to the dine-and-dashing food bandit.

Myojin sighed and sat back down. He wanted to hit himself for falling for carnie nonsense and circus trickery.

Of course Gan beating up strongmen was all still part of the show. Of course none of this was real and all of it was scripted. Circus or carnival wrestling was fake, after all.

What the hell were the Ebisus thinking, making them part of the show though?

"Are they friends of yours, Yahiko-chan?" someone asked him from behind.

"Ah! Marimo!" said Yahiko. "You scared me. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your trailer?"

Marimo pouted cutely. "No. It's boring in there. All you can do in there is stare at a wall or eat. I want to watch the show with you. I want to see your reactions from up close."

Yahiko blushed and turned his attention back to the ring as Gan threw several other circus wrestlers over the top rope, growling and grunting like an unhinged wild beast. "How'd you know they were my friends?"

"I saw you with them after I gave you a ticket to the show," she explained. "I also asked them when they got here if they knew you."

"So what's going on?" Yahiko asked, pointing at the commotion that two of his so-called comrades was making. "Who put them up to this?"

"Well, Gan-san volunteered to fight the strongmen for real but my father had other ideas. He offered him some money to do a scripted show instead. The girl he's with, Chizuru, offered to be his manager for a cut of the money, saying he owes her anyway."

"Yeah, that sounds like Raccoon Girl, all right," said Yahiko with a shake of his head. "She's the stingiest rich person I know."

"About that. Is that Chizuru person a relative of Kaoru-san?" she asked. "Like a little sister, cousin, niece, or something?"

"Oh. OH. No, there's no relation between the two of them. But it's freaky, isn't it? How much they look alike, I mean," he said. "They're like twin sisters or something."

"When they first inquired about our wrestling tournament and cash prize, I almost thought you brought Kenshin-san and Kaoru-san with you over from Tokyo! Oh, and that poor Sano-san let himself go."

Yahiko laughed at her joke. "Hey, that was a good one." He then realized something. "Wait, what do you mean 'Kenshin-san' was with them? Wasn't it just Gan and the Raccoon Girl?"

Right on cue, a familiar voice shouted, "Stop right there, criminal scum."

Instead of Munenori Minoe, there stood Kaede Morinaga.

His other personality. The wig and eye patch was off. Her red hair was tied in a ponytail that started on the nape of her neck. Her scar under her eye visible to those with front row seats.

And indeed, even from a distance, she did look like Kenshin to all those who ever knew or met him.

"Well, if it isn't my mortal enemy, Samurai X!" said the Great Gan to Kaede while flexing his biceps (and sucking in his gut).

'Who the hell is Samurai X?!' thought Yahiko with a facepalm.

***

The audience booed Gan as he pushed and prodded around the shorter Kenshin look-alike Kaede like she owed him money.

"Leave the little girl alone!" some of them said. "Or little boy! I'm not sure!"

However, those who knew Kenshin and especially those who knew Kaede knew what was in store for them next.

They waited. Anticipated. With bated breath.

In Christian terms, it was a David and Goliath type of scenario. Where the young (uncrowned) King David slew the Philistine giant Goliath with a slingshot and stones to the skull.

Or at that was how Kaede envisioned it, since she actually paid attention to the bible readings Amakusa did of both the Old and New Testament for his faithful.

In Japanese History terms, it was a Kamikaze (Divine Wind) scenario. The mismatched Japan was able to overcome the Mongols through Divine Intervention in the form of a typhoon.

Morinaga then fell into her deadly Scorpio Stance.

"Swarming Stabs!"

She used sticks instead of her actual weapons, but this was a fixed carnival-style wrestling match anyway. And she was supposed to be the underdog.

The thrust pushed the muscular gorilla man to a corner. From there, as the roars of the crowd grew louder and louder, she did one of her signature moves.

It missed against Soujiro Seta, but the Glacial Gan would not be able to avoid it. He was too big, too slow, and too dumb to be able to do so.

"Scorpion Nest!"

The cheering reached a fever pitch as the seeming redheaded stepchild and weakling wrecked Gan apart like a hapless sand bag.

The feeling of nostalgia filled Yahiko yet again, remembering how the wimpy Kenshin wreaked havoc all over the Tanishi Yakuza, blowing everyone's expectations (and bodies) away.

The crowd then roared in approval as Kaede blew away the swaying, bruised Gan with one final "Deathstalker Stab!" that pushed him out of the ring, in between the ropes.

The match was over. She had won. The crowd roared with approval.

"That stick fighting girl was amazing! She was so fast with her strikes!" was the unanimous consensus of the audience. What a match. What a show.

So that was the end of that.

Myojin brushed away the sweat on the edges of his eyebrows. Damn.

She didn't hold back. She went all out instead of doing choreographed weak strikes or even sparring taps.

The ending was obviously scripted, but the hits weren't.

However, right below the ring, the scuffed-up Gan stirred. Even from that far away, Yahiko could see the wide grin on his face. Afterwards, the lout grabbed something from underneath the ring.

It was a wooden club.

'Wait, the match is over, right?' thought Yahiko. 'Gan, what in the world are you planning?'

***

The Great Gan entered the ring from the bottom rope, towered before the tiny Kaede, and then said, "Those love taps are not enough to take me down, Samurai X. Or am I talking to Patches now? Is that why you're acting so weak?"

This elicited a snarl from Kaede. "Don't compare me to Minoe. Don't imply he's weak either, while we're at it."

Gan snorted. "I don't get why you have so many nicknames for yourself like you've been possessed by multiple spirits, but I'll humor you for now. However, what I won't tolerate is how you keep pulling back your strikes. To do so is to disrespect me. You can do better than that, Samurai X!"

"What are you doing, Gan?" hissed Chizuru. "This isn't part of the script!"

"Sorry, Kaori-neechan! I'm going off-script! I'm doing improv!"

The Humongous Gan hurled his bat at Morinaga multiple times, who then proceeded to dodge in every which way. He ended up hitting nothing but air, the ring ropes, the pillar, and the post, but no swing landed on the Fake Battousai.

Like this was a replay of his fight with Shogo Amakusa back in Shinshu.

Yahiko gulped and clutched his arm rests, his fingernails digging into the material. As much as he hated to admit it, this match-up did leave him at least a little bit curious.

How would a serious Gan fare against a serious Kaede in a real fight?

Gan, with his superhuman stamina and durability versus the offense-minded, lightning-quick Morinaga.

His swings started going faster. And wilder. Gan hit everything he could reach with his weapon. The ring ropes shook around with a twang like they were being strummed like guitar strings.

Each hit spelled death, or at least a one-hit K.O., if any of them were to ever make full contact with the tiny girl or her tiny head.

If they could make full contact.

"Have you lost your goddamn mind, you ape?" Kaede asked, still keeping herself from breaking his kneecaps or shoving a stick up where the sun didn't shine.

Gan was one of Minoe's friends after all, but if he pushed her hard enough, something disastrous might happen.

She did the Scorpion Nest to help better parry the bat strikes and counter the batter at the same time, but each contact she made with his weapon reverberated right into her bone.

On his part, Gan ate all the strikes she hit him with like rain off his back.

She then pivoted and did Swarming Barb thrusts at Gan's blindside. It barely fazed him and one swing of his bat was all he needed to swat her and her silly sticks away.

'Since when was he this strong?' she wondered. If she only had sharp swords instead of sticks, it might've made a significant difference.

The structure underneath the ring mat cracked and buckled from their combined the force of their hammering blows. Like endless waves crashing off of a cliff side until it was crushed into sand and rubble over time.

She dodged, parried, and blocked, but she wasn't as much of a defensive expert as her Minoe personality. Her defense was her offense, and Gan shrugged off her offense. So in essence, he also shrugged off her main line of defense.

"How many more of my attacks can your thin wrists block, Samurai X?" shouted Gan.

Soon, bruises and welts formed all over her body.

Strikes meant to hit a target were different from parries and deflections, so Gan managed to tag her little by little every time she attempted to bombard him with strikes even though she was much faster than him.

They weren't so much parrying as they were exchanging strikes that sometimes happened to get in the way of each other.

Gan soon had her cornered at one of the ring posts and clipped her arm with a crack of his bat when she didn't deflect fast enough. Like a trip hammer, this made her turn and counter with a Deathstalker Stab to the skull.

His head got knocked back for a second before he grinned and kept attacking someone who was used to being the attacker.

The predator had become the prey.

"More! MORE! Hit me HARDER! I can barely feel your mosquito bites on my skin! I'm barely bleeding here, Samurai X! Or should I say Patches?"

This was getting a little dangerous.

Meanwhile, Chizuru had long ago left the ring, probably to ask for help from the remaining wrestlers backstage or even call the police. Like a person with common sense would.

Even though Kaede gave the likes of Soujiro Seta a run for his money, she was merely stick-fighting against someone as sturdy and resilient as Gan, who survived even the most fatal of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques using a real sword.

Granted, he was hypnotized into thinking he had died, but he was still a tough son of a gun. Beating him with sticks would not cut it. She needed to use her blades to stand a chance.

Unbidden, Morinaga then remembered Kinta Minakata's answer to her question back at the Sakaguchi Dojo.

"I'm on no one's side. I don't want what happened to Shimabara to happen to my family. Not again."

To which she responded, "Whatever happens to your family would just be karma for what you did to mine!"

Yahiko stood up from his seat. "I've got to go, Marimo. I have to stop those two!"

"Eh?" Marimo said, just noticing him move. "But isn't this part of the show?"

"It doesn't look like it to me!" he said.

A sickening crack of the bat hit Morinaga upside the head, drawing blood.

Yahiko shouted, "NOOO! Kaede! Gan, you son of a bitch! Someone stop the goddamn match!"

She then countered with a Ryu Kan Sen (Dragon Wrap Flash) at the back of Gan's own head.

"!?" Yahiko was left speechless. He didn't know what to say.

The glint in Kaede's eyes had changed. Something awoke deep inside her thanks to that crushing blow to her head.  

The Immovable Gan paused for a second, noticing the change in fighting style, before waving his bat around regardless, none the worse for wear.

"Time to swat down this annoying fly!"

But this time, he couldn't catch her. She was dodging better than before. Faster too.

'Shinsoki (God Speed),' thought Yahiko. Kaede had reached the high-speed footwork of Kenshin to complement her hand speed advantage.

Minakata's words put Kaede's mindset back to the time when she served as the Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) to Kenshin Himura while Kinta himself served as Kagemusha to Shogo Amakusa.

When she really did act like the spirit and image of Battousai Himura. Amakusa himself taught her everything she knew about Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

The girl herself felt nostalgic for that time before Akahori helped with the genocide of the Hidden Christians.

If only she could turn back time. If only she could change the course of history.

If only she really were the Battousai.

Before the Indestructible Gan could react, the Battousai of Speed hit him flush with every variation of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu technique known as Ryu Kan Sen.

"Ryu Kan Sen Kogarashi! (Dragon Wrap Flash Gale!)"

"—Tsumuji! (Hair Spin!)"

"—Arashi! (Storm!)'

The howling winds from her relentless typhoon of attacks battered and blew apart bits and pieces of the mountain—of Mount Gan—but it would not move. It would not let her pass.

"That's more like it. I kind of felt that last one, kiddo! Do better!"

As another famous saying claimed, 'No matter how much the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.'

The Fake Battousai then declared, "Ryu Sou Sen Garami! (Double Dragon Flash Head Attack!)" before spinning and focusing the entirety of her momentum towards breaking Gan's neck.

The move that "finished off" Gan at the Akahori Mansion (Formerly the Tani Mansion) now barely made a dent on him.

Gan's ripcord neck muscles splintered Kaede's sticks apart before they could even break one bone on his body or tear apart his thick neck, which he flexed hard enough to stop the sticks short from doing damage.

The Mountainous Gan chuckled as he flexed his biceps and pectorals. "Kumamoto (Shogo Amakusa) hit me harder than that, Samurai X!"

Yahiko's jaw dropped. Never mind Kaede doing better had she gotten access to her swords. How unstoppable would Gan be if he had his tetsubo (metal bat) with him instead?

Kaede wiped the blood from her face, shook her head, and blinked. She then saw the sorry state of her weapons. And grinned.

'Oh my. They look like oversized prison shivs now.'

"Are you done playing? Be serious for a minute, Samurai... GUAAAA!"

Gan barely raised his arms in time to deflect multiple stabs that would've punctured a lung or gauge his eyes out, with it instead slicing open the ridge of his brow.

"BWAHAHAHA! DEATHSTALKER STAB! SWARMING BARBS! SCORPION NEST! DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE...!"

She cackled and screamed as her blunt sticks for weapons were now shaped like daggers and spears. Unhinged, to say the least.

Finally getting nicked and cut apart enough to bleed at last, even Gan himself started to holler in laughter, his face a crimson mask.

"That's the spirit, Morinaga Kaede! If that even is your real name!"Gan screamed her whole name as he bludgeoned the cackling lunatic herself to the head and chest with sickening cracks of his bat whenever she got close enough to hit.

Like rabid dogs, they ripped apart each other with no regard for defense or safety.

"You're still incomplete! You're not fighting at your full potential! I will not lose to an incomplete person! Not while there's two or more of you inside of you instead of just one!"

"SHUT UP AND DIE, GORILLA MAN!"

Didn't Yahiko claim circus wrestling was for children? No, the clowns were for children. No child should see this barbaric display!

Before anyone in the audience could realize what had happened, all the wrestlers and strongmen from the Ebisu Circus ran into the ring and brawled with both the newcomers along with themselves then and there, signaling the end of the match by disqualification.

It became a free-for-all bloody brawl.

A melee that (smartly) showcased their whole roster of strongmen, bodybuilders, and wrestlers defeating the outsiders who dare infringe on their turf in a blowoff, one-off fued of sorts after those two took their spotlight away from them.

"Wait, what? That was all part of the show?" said Yahiko, who finally sat down and exhaled the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding in all this time.

What was even going on anymore?

Something about two factions running into the ring to take out Gan and Kaede, only to end up brawling with each other since they remembered they were rivals. Or something.

That was what he overheard the audience members say anyway. Those were the people who'd been keeping up with all the strongman wrestling matches of the Ebisu Circus.

Yahiko didn't regularly attend enough circus and carnival wrestling matches to keep up with their little storylines or changing allegiances.

"I told you so," Marimo chided. "Your friends did well. They stuck to the booking. I think. Also, I'm about to come on next myself for the show's main event. Wish me luck, Yahiko-chan!"

"Oh. Oh! Uh, good luck!" said Myojin, still pondering which part of the wrestling show was scripted and which part was unscripted.

When the (literal) dust settled from the dissatisfying ending of the wrestling portion of the show, one of the audience members remarked, "Wow, what a dusty finish."

***

Yahiko thought he was seeing things back in the Hiroshima bandit camp full of kidnapped women. Apparently, this was not the case.

He really did witness Kaede Morinaga doing Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques instead of her Scorpio and Cancer Stances.

So aside from Kaede, Minoe had another personality. A third one. One who only knew Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Like the spirit and image of Kenshin himself, thusly living up to her moniker: The Fake Battousai. The Battousai of Speed.

She was the same Fake Battousai who wiped out the Fake Battousai Group in Shinshushin led by the late Keisuke.

'Keisuke, huh?' It felt like Yahiko hadn't heard that name in ages even though he was in Shinshu just a few months ago, still nursing persistent sword wounds he got from fighting Soujiro Seta, Shogo Amakusa, and the Nisemono (Fake) Battousai.

The Fake Battousai Group was a joke. However, the Real Battousai Group that they based their name on was no joke.

It cost them their lives (and their male bits) to take up that name.

The prospect of fighting a whole group of Battousai-tier opponents like Shogo, Kaede, and Kinta (as well as perhaps several others) was not something anyone should take lightly.

So why did the prospect of doing so excite Yahiko Myojin so much? Maybe it was the influence of Sanosuke Sagara in him acting up. The guy was a "bad" influence to him, after all.

'But what about the Brigands Guild?' he thought. He'd only heard of them recently and how Kinta dispatched several of their members with his supreme iaijutsu skills.

Surely these brigands weren't as dangerous as Minakata or Morinaga, right? Certainly, the Ten Swords or the Six Comrades were stronger than them as well.

***

And now for the main event. The Human Cannonball that closed off the show.

The teenaged Marimo, although still quite thin, was much bigger than she was 6 years ago, when she was 10 years old. Thusly, her father had gotten her a bigger, more powerful cannon to allow her to do her dangerous stunt to sail across the audience with the right amount of firepower.

She posed and danced along to the beat of the music as gorgeous circus dancers and acrobats did the same down at the foot of the huge cannon.

They did the drum roll. Everyone was on the edge of their seats as she entered the cannon.

The ringmaster himself did the countdown for his daughter's main event. "Five! Four...!"

The rest of the audience joined in, including Yahiko.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

Kaboom. The cannon roared and the earth rumbled. Off went the Flying Marimo.

Everyone stood up to try and follow the whizzing blur that was Marimo across the big top and into her targeted net.

Yahiko, a trained martial artist, was able to catch sight of the full arch of her flight.

It was so beautiful. She flew like a swan taking a dive at a lake as she went through multiple flaming hoops and then landed on the safety net down below.

This was a routine action for her that she did twice a day, which belied the real dangers of such an act.

And just like that, within 5 minutes of drawn out anticipation and a second of climax, the show was finally over.

"Thank you and good night, everyone! I love Yokohama!" said Marimo to the crowd.

The audience erupted in claps and roars of approval, which was especially unusual for a Japanese audience to do due to their culture of politeness and public etiquette. Marimo deserved the standing ovation, though.

Yahiko came over to Marimo after the whole troupe went through their curtain call. He caught her signing autographs, blowing kisses, and waving to the milling crowd. What a superstar.

"What was it like, getting shot out of a cannon?" he asked her after he caught up with her, when she was done working the crowd.

She replied, "It's hard to describe. It's like riding the most intense, wildest bronco, but the horse has wings and you're flying in the air! With no saddle! There's a big boom and a second later, you're flying through the air, unfettered and untethered by anything. It's the best feeling in the world!"

They then went out of the tent through the staff exit, away from the exiting crowd of satisfied customers.

They walked together, with her struggling to keep pace with him. He slowed down his walk to accommodate her.

Afterwards, they heard a whistle followed by a small boom. More whistling booms, crackles, and pops followed.

They looked up into the sky.

Sure enough, fireworks painted the black canvas with fire flowers of light and sound.

The bright and flowery sparks in the heavens changed the lighting around them from red to blue to yellow and every color in between. Their mood shifted with these heavenly variegations.

It was like they'd been transferred into another world. Everything suddenly looked otherworldly. Almost dreamlike.

"Hey, what's with the fireworks?" Yahiko asked. "Is there a festival nearby or...?"

"You didn't know? This is our last show of the month for Yokohama," she said. "By tomorrow, we'll be packing up and traveling to Fukuoka. We added fireworks in our last night as a show of appreciation to the people of Yokohama for making our trip here a smashing success."

"Oh. Well, then! This is a great send off, if that's the case," he said. "The Ebisu Circus has become better than I remember it."

She chuckled. "Thanks, Yahiko-chan. I'm glad. We were practicing hard all month and in this particular show, everything just clicked."

Before they knew it, they were standing on a hill, overlooking the flowery lights above.

What a magical night. It was almost... romantic, to say the least.

Too romantic.

What was with this mood?

'Stop it,' he reprimanded himself. 'Stop thinking such thoughts.'

He then turned his head in time to meet eyes with his second crush.

They looked into each other's eyes and got lost in them. This time they couldn't tear themselves away from their gazes.

Myojin's heartbeat went a mile a minute. Nothing else short of swordfights and sparring matches made his heart go crazy like this.

Marimo closed her eyes and parted her mouth slightly, her head moving towards Yahiko's.

He himself closed his eyes.

Their lips were about to touch.

He then saw a vision of a crying, bawling Tsubame in his mind's eye.

***

No. This was wrong. He shouldn't do this.

'Stop right now. Don't make Tsubame cry.'

He shouldn't do something that could make Tsubame Sanjo despair if she ever found out about it.

'She doesn't need to know,' a voice at the back of his mind whispered to him. A sinister voice.

'No. She won't need to know because nothing will happen here,' his inner voice of reason countered.

Yahiko finally decided to come clean, grabbing hold of Marimo's shoulders before she could lean in for their kiss. This startled her.

"Y-Yahiko-chan...?"

"I'm sorry, Marimo. I already have a girlfriend."

The glint of hope and expectation in Marimo's eyes (that Yahiko noticed just now) was extinguished with those simple words.

"What? Huh. Oh."

There was a pregnant pause between the two of them.

"Is it the crazy girl that looks like Kenshin-san? Samurai X-san?"

"WHAT? No!" he exclaimed, saving himself from tripping face-first to the ground.

Yahiko then took a deep breath, composed himself, and said, "Her name is Tsubame. Sanjo Tsubame. She's my coworker at a maid cafe back in Tokyo. I met her before I met you. We ended up together while you were long gone, touring the nation with your circus."

Another second or two of awkward silence passed between them.

"Are you sure it's not the cute girl with the hair bow? The one that kind of looks like Kaoru-san?"

"DOUBLE NO! Ew! Like I'd ever date a look-alike of Raccoon Girl! Kaoru's like a big sister to me! Gross!" said Yahiko. He then stuttered, "...H-Hey, Marimo! Are you okay?" after seeing the face she made.

Marimo smiled at him with glistening eyes as the fireworks finally died down.

"Ehehehe. Looks like I've just been dumped."

***

As Yahiko went back to the inn he stayed at, exiting a rather eventful circus variety show, his head filled up with various thoughts although his heart felt altogether empty.

He ultimately did the right thing in the end.

Even though he sure did take his sweet time to do so. What the hell was he thinking anyway?

He shouldn't lead a girl around when he was already taken, even though he wasn't even completely aware of her feelings up until the last second.

'Sorry, Tsubame. Sorry, Marimo.'

Wait. Was he forgetting something? Was it Gan? Did he leave Gan behind?

No, screw the Goofy Gan. Yahiko wasn't even supposed to go to the circus tonight in the first place. He was forced because Gan was up to no good once again. So let him rot, wherever he was!

No, he shouldn't make excuses. No one forced him to go to the circus to see Marimo.

He'd been tailing her around like a lost puppy ever since they met each other again at the post office. He totally led her on even though he didn't intend to do so.

He should've seen the signs. Or maybe he did notice them but he didn't want to be presumptuous.

He should've nipped this issue right at the bud from the start. Because of his carelessness, he ended up making a girl cry. He was the worst.

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant then felt a chill down his spine.

He thusly ducked before a Tsuki thrust from behind could hit him at the back of his neck, feeling its murderous intent in full.

He turned in time to see a familiar face. Too familiar, to be honest. 'Dammit, I forgot to attend training!'

"AHA! There you are, Joshua-kun!" shouted the blonde bombshell Satsuki Sakaguchi/May Brooks of the Musou Madden School. "I've been looking all over for you! You've been skipping our sparring sessions again, haven't you? I've waited all day!"

"Ah, Satsuki! I can explain!" Yahiko said, though he did not feel all that confident with his (lack of an) explanation. He then heard a cackle from behind him.

"Hahahaha! Iiiinteresting," said Minoe, who'd actually been standing behind Myojin all this time.

Or rather, said Minoe after his wig and eye patch were blown away by the shockwave of air produced from Satsuki's pole thrust, resulting in him awakening his "Kaede Morinaga" persona.

'Ah! Since when did he...?' thought the Son of Tokyo Samurai. 'I mean, she! I mean, whatever!'

"Who is this cheeky bimbo anyway, Urchin Head? I'll mess her up," asked Kaede with a yawn while rubbing her eyes. Practically half-awake.

"She's not a bimbo, Minoe! I mean, Morinaga! It's Satsuki, Chizuru's weirdo gaijin friend who thinks she's Japanese!" said Yahiko, but Minoe, well, Kaede didn't hear him. 'I guess Morinaga hasn't formally met Satsuki yet!'

"She better watch herself. I'm not in the mood for shenanigans. That meat shield you call a friend really pissed me off earlier."

"Hey! Who are you calling a bimbo? What's gotten into you?" asked Satsuki, who brushed her golden hair back then fell into the Waxing Stance of her naginatajutsu school. "Even if it's you, Minoe-chan, I won't let such a comment slide!"

"Oho. You dare approach me?" said Kaede, who tied her unfurled hair up to a high topknot ponytail then unsheathed her sword and dagger weapons.

"What's going on here?" asked Chizuru, the fourth wheel of their group, who ran into the would-be "crime scene" with click-clacking boots as she fixed her large hair bow.

"Joshua-kun stood me up on our date!" answered Satsuki, playing the victim.

"That brute! Kick his ass!" the Raikouji Heiress said, believing Miss Brooks immediately. "What would your girlfriend back in Tokyo say about this? Cheater!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Now hold on a minute!" said Myojin. "Don't pick sides! And you, don't call our sparring matches 'dates'!"

"An opening! DEATHSTALKER...!"

"...And you! No fighting, dammit!" he said as he parried the sword with Kenshin's sakabatou and jumped in between Kaede and Satsuki to break up their burgeoning cat fight.

They soon after became an entanglement of limbs and clothes.

"Out of my way, Urchin Head...! Eeeek!"

"Ah wait, just where do you think you're grabbing, mister?!"

"Blimey! Joshua-kun! You're so forward! My heart belongs to Kinta-sama, though!"

"...I'm sorry! It was an accident!"

Just then, all four of them—three excitable girls in various states of undress due to wardrobe malfunctions from the scuffle who pushed, pulled, and tugged on the shirt and pants of a similarly disheveled guy every which way—stopped cold when it dawned to them who had been quietly watching them all that time.

And understanding how suggestive they all looked to any passerby who saw them without any context.

"So which one of these lucky girls is Sanjo Tsubame exactly, Yahiko-kun?" Marimo asked with the sweetest of smiles.

Oh no. Yahiko had been demoted from "chan" to "kun"

"M-Marimo, it's not what it looks like...!"

God. Damn. It. That was the absolute worst thing he could've said. Famous last words from many a man caught cheating with floozies.

"How dare you play with a woman's heart like this! Have you no shame? You... you... filthy animal! Perv! Womanizer! Two-timing scoundrel! You're an enemy to all women! "

"NOOOO! Marimo, you've got it all wrooong!"

The ensuing slap was so crisp, its sound reverberated all the way to the nearby docks.

Oh well. There were worse ways to end one of your first crushes than to be mistaken for a playboy by your crush.

'Sayonara, Marimo,' Yahiko thought with tears streaming down his cheeks and a wry smile on his face as he saw Marimo's svelte silhouette retreat into the distance with his blurry eyes.

Even though he developed feelings for Marimo as well, he still met Tsubame first and ultimately fell for her the hardest when push came to shove.

"Who the heck was that?" asked May as she brushed and tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and pulled her sleeves back to her shoulders. "Mary Moe? Marie Mo?"

***

To Be Continued...

Mary Moe... She's a vegetarian!

So here's to having another filler episode character incorporated into the story. First Shogo, then Shura, now Marimo. They join the ranks of the reworked Kaita and Misanagi from the infamous Black Knights saga of the third season of RK.

Danke, Abdiel

[morethanaprincess-a]

🔥

Unpopular Opinions meme

So, RP and Danganronpa general editions are done. I think it’s time for a fandom edition. Here are two video game opinions and one anime opinion:

- I miss when 07th Expansion sound novels were good. That being said, I believe Umineko no Naku Koro ni was a far more interesting and compelling game than Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. But Umineko suffered from poor art in its initial release as well as a terrible anime, and while Higurashi’s art was also awful, the anime adaptation was relatively faithful to the games, well-paced, and the art was about as good as you could get for Studio DEEN. Umineko just doesn’t suit well to the anime medium and works far better as a sound novel, but it’s an incredible story. The “reveal” in game 8 of Umineko of the true culprit/mastermind left much more of an impression on me than the end of Higurashi.

But both games are worth checking out if you love horror. 

- While Zero Time Dilemma was not the strongest game of The Nonnary Games series by far, it was not as terrible as fans made it out to be. The animation and cut scenes were painful, but the story itself? I liked the way it resolved the loose ends of 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward. Sigma is my favorite character in the entire franchise and I loved his team in ZTD (I’ve even cosplayed Diana, if that gives you any indication how much I love the D-team!). 

In the same vein, I also don’t think this series is suitable for an anime adaptation, which makes them relatively unpopular compared to something like Danganronpa. Virtue’s Last Reward specifically just doesn’t seem like something that can be animated and done well. Though in my (limited) video game experience, only two games really managed to shock me with their endings. And those were Danganronpa 2 and Virtue’s Last Reward.

If you’re a Danganronpa fan and haven’t played 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, Virtue’s Last Reward, and Zero Time Dilemma (in that order. Do not play them out of order), I highly recommend you do so! Nagito’s escape room in Chapter 4 (the best chapter, don’t argue with me) in Danganronpa 2 is a tribute to these games. If you liked that part of the chapter, you need to play these. They’re on steam! 

- I just can’t get into a lot of “new” anime. And by new, I mean released in the past 5 years or so, maybe more. Most of my favorite shows are at least 15+ years old and haven’t changed much over the years. I don’t think I’m outgrowing the medium, but something about the newer shows just doesn’t grab me the way things like Cowboy Bebop, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and the entire Universal Century timeline of Mobile Suit Gundam did. 

The only “new” things I’ve been enjoying (not including long-running shows like One Piece, because I’ll try to keep up with the manga regardless. My faves Nico Robin and Boa Hancock deserve the world) are Bungou Stray Dogs and Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. I tend to give any Gundam series a chance because of how much I love UC (And Wing was one of my first real fandoms when it was still on Toonami), but BSD has been the only somewhat popular series in recent years I’ve found myself truly enjoying. I’m only on Season 2 and need to catch up, but if I ever get burnt out on Sonia that’s probably the RPC I’d want to try. There’s two canon muses and one OC I’m slowly developing a backstory and voice for that really interest me.

That, and I don’t think there’s even an RPC for the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, or Lupin III, which would be what I’d try to write for otherwise.

Sidenote: It’s actually a struggle to write both “Gundam” and “Gundham” and remember which one I’m talking about. It’s worse in IRL conversations with friends who love Gundam and then I start talking about the Ultimate Breeder and how excellent he is with friends who have never played/seen Danganronpa. Awkward.

[babyybitchhh]

All the blogs I follow who like anime and manga are the blogs that I get my information from (so I have no problems with spoilers). The entire Tokyo Ghoul series ended last year so I wouldn't have wait for updates. But yeah. The anime left out way too many details out from the manga, the anime could have been a lot longer. Almost like HxH. I mean.. I know creating a series is expensive from a creator's perspective, but there could have been a lot more to the anime though from what I notice.

Well, who knows, dear anon! Maybe Tokyo Ghoul will one day get a proper reboot that actually does it justice just like HxH did! I know a lot of people have complaints about the 11’ anime but I found it to be overall much more enjoyable, true to the vibe of the manga and it didn’t have some of the weirdest filler episodes I’ve ever seen like the 99’ adaption. Like, I know I’m going off on an unrelated tangent here but that extra round of the hunter exam that they squeezed in for absolutely no reason pretty much did it for me and then they cut almost all of the Hisoka va Kastro fight and I just ... for what purpose? 😷

Anyway what I’m saying is that it’s not unheard of for piss poor adaptions to get a reboot that completely blows the first one out of the water. Take a look at Fate/Stay Night. The Deen anime was terrible. An actual flop and for good reason. But then UFO table got their hands on the franchise and now it’s one of THE most popular anime series, every studio wants a piece of the Fate/ pie. So don’t lose hope. Tokyo Ghoul may one day get its 10/10 adaption too!

[borisbubbles]

2010s Eurovision: 355-351

355. Donny Montell - “Love is blind” Lithuania 2012

While Donny Demontell was markedly less insufferable in his twinkarnation, I still found him pretty annoying lol. He’s such a ham-fisted attentionmonger who thinks he’s hot shit. 🙄 and guess what, he totally isn’t? Of course he had to resort to doing a cartwheel and OMFG THAT FUCKING AIR GUITAR IS BURNT FOREVER ON MY RETINA ugh, I wish *I* had been blind during this ordeal. 🤮

_______________________________________________________________

354. 3+2 ft Robert Wells - “Butterflies” Belarus 2010

“ZOMG BUTTERFLY WINGS!!!” I don’t *care* okay. If you go literal in the most lifeless way possible, you’re just starved for good staging ideas. “Butterflies” is an average-run-the-mill Sovbot ballad, with zero personality, mediocre vocals and a literal (ie: unoriginal) gimmick. AND qualified, in doing so destroying the miraculous wonder of ~Kuunkuiskaajat~. Unacceptable!!!

_______________________________________________________________

353. Dalal & Deen ft. Ana Rucner and Jala - “Ljubav je” Bosnia & Herzegovina 2016

One of the biggest diseases in postmodern Eurovision is Meaningitis. A lot of countries feel like they are supposed to slap on random Socially Relevant Critique onto their entries haphazardly. “Ljubav je” is one of the more egregious examples where a fairly generalist message of love and humanitarianism was transformed into a naggy refugee crisis pamphlet. 🙄 Underscored with barbed wire and foil blankets.

But of course, this by itself wasn’t enough for Bosnia, so they also made a DESPERATE grab at BDex. Now, I am aware Nina deserved to win it, but I voted for Bosnia and I have zero regrets whatsoever. It was ugly and so are they. 😞Ana Rucner’s “outfit” alone. This frontal assault to the visual senses was SUPEREFFECTIVE (in making me dislike them :) 

(having said all that, while i DISlike “Ljubav je” overall, props to Jala for one of the few instances of kick ass White Guy Rapping in Eurovision :) Too bad it’s wasted on this shitstorm of an entry  tho 😞)

________________________________________________________________

352. Magdalena Tul - “Jestem” Poland 2011

For some reason, I have a feeling that Madgalena Tul has fans and... I can’t really see why? “Jestem” is pretty dope in studio version, but the live. 😬 A lot of disembodied voices and bad camera angles and it sucks all of the life it couldn’t had. I suppose it’s apt that this was also the FIRST live perfomance in all of 2011. Great way to set up three nights of major disappointment. Though recently I heard Magdalena became semi-relevant again, when she turned up at Eurovision in Concert, where she proceeded to absolutely butcher “To nie ja”.   🙃

_______________________________________________________________

351. Srbuk - “Walking out” Armenia 2019

The Armenian Magdalena. Srbuk showed all the promise in the world, which she continued to show with an intense treatise on domestic violence, but the actual live... You were supposed to be strong, Srbuk, WHERE WAS YOUR POWER???  😭 WE BELIEVED IN WE ALL BELIEVED IN YOU -- BorisBanks

I don’t even know what else to add about Srbuk, honestly? Armenia provided NO staging (zomg shot of an empty arena!! no one curr, don’t you understand how immersion and cinematic tension work? Apparently not.), poor diction (you can barely make out what she sings), weak pinched voice (+ a DISASTROUS high note), NEGATIVE CHARISMA (I just feel she’s permanently irate?), not to mention the general death-by-wideshotness that ran rampant in 2019. A complete failure and a massive disappointment. Gtfo my ranking plz.